Lesufi: Educational gap between rich and poor slowly closing
The Gauteng Department of Education will provide four-year bursaries to the top three matrics hailing from township and rural schools in the province.
Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi made the announcement at an event to honour the class of 2020 on Wednesday.
Lesufi said although the province’s pass rate dropped by 3,5%, it still managed to have more than 92 000 pupils pass matric and 49 000 pass with bachelors.
He described as a first in the country.
Lesufi announced that Diepsloot Secondary School reported a 100% pass rate and over 70% bachelor passes, despite repeated targeting by vandals.
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He said this shows that the educational gap between the rich and poor is slowly closing.
"The demonstration that we are indeed closing the gap between the rich and the poor.
"This school gave us 100%, a stone’s throw from Fourway High School, which gave us 98%. The township gave us 100%.”
Lesufi announced that the top three pupils from township and rural schools will go to institutions of higher learning of their choice.
"Our decision is very simple: There must be no learner that is doing well that must sit at home and do nothing. All these learners must be supported.
"We have chosen the learners that we really believe that need support.”
