Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Almost 50 GADRA alumni graduate from Rhodes this week!
  • Cleaning Kowie River and Fairview Spring for World Water Day
  • Local soccer teams avoid SAB Regional League relegation!
  • Bongani Fule: new Eastern Cape Junior Lightweight champion!
  • Bathurst Book Fair is back with a bang!
  • In the words of Nelson Mandela, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”
  • Avbob 2023 Poetry Competition Winner: Sithembele Isaac Xhegwana of Makhanda
  • Flooding at the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»Mary Waters high school reintroduces Science
Uncategorized

Mary Waters high school reintroduces Science

Grocott's MailBy Grocott's MailApril 16, 2015No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Following interventions from the provincial and district departments of Education, Mary Waters High School is offering Science again after phasing out the subject earlier this year. The school had made the decision to drop Science without approval from the department of education.

Following interventions from the provincial and district departments of Education, Mary Waters High School is offering Science again after phasing out the subject earlier this year. The school had made the decision to drop Science without approval from the department of education.

On the first day of this term, the school began offering Science again.  The school was able to reintroduce the subject after the department of education allocated an extra teacher to the understaffed school.

Speaking to Grocott's Mail last week, district education head Amos Fetsha said after meetings with the School Governing Body, prospective science pupils and parents, it was decided that the subject had to be introduced once more.

"We granted them a growth post in order for this teacher to be relieved of the burden of being the only qualified science teacher at the school," Fetsha said.

A growth post is a post that is beyond the school's allocation. It kicks in once the number of pupils is too high for the teachers to manage, Fetsha said.

"Part of our findings was that the teacher who was meant to teach Science at the school was overburdened. That is why we gave them a growth post," Fetsha said.

Mary Waters' decision to drop science

Earlier this year, a Grocotts Mail investigated an anonymous claim that science pupils were forced to quit the subject and study history.

After the news broke, the school management team of Mary Waters was hauled before the education department's special committee to explain the move.

When interviewed earlier in the year, School principal Faith Coetzee defended her decision, saying lack of interest in the subject by pupils, along with a lack of teaching capacity forced them to drop the subject.

"The number of learners taking science has been decreasing extensively over the years,” Coetzee said.

According to Coetzee, the situation placed a burden on other teachers at the school, which has over 1000 pupils.

"Learners who want to avoid science run to other subjects and create a problem of overcrowded classes," she said.

The Mary Waters matric class of 2016 would have been the last group to write the Physical Science paper.

When Grocott's Mail first reported on the situation, Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) researcher, Zukiswa Kota was critical of Mary Waters decision stop teaching Science, describing the move as unconstitutional.

Previous ArticleAbandoned school building a crime den
Next Article In praise of palaeontology
Grocott's Mail

Comments are closed.

Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Humans of Makhanda

Humans of Makhanda

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2023 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.