On schools, and such.

So the Princess (and the boys next year) goes to what used to be referred to as a Model C school - these days apparently our school and some others are what is referred to as governing body driven schools. What this means is that the government syllabus is followed, and added to by the school. For instance, we have chess as a subject from grade R to grade 3, full computer education right through and a real teacher child ratio of not more than 25 kids in a class (by real it is the number of kids at any time in front of a teacher and not the total number of kids divided by the total number of teachers). In reality it boils down to about 22 kids in any grade 1 class. The fees are way more than the usual government schools as half the teachers are funded by the parents and paid through the governing body. But it is also about half of private school fees, depending on the school. It is a good median.

Once a year the education department assess the schools to ensure that the standards are up to scratch - if I am correct they choose 2 subjects per year to evaluate. This year the Princess' school was evaluated for Afrikaans first language and Maths. She got 100% for both on the government evaluation. Although her school report card is great, it is nowhere near to 100%, even for those two subjects. But that's not the point. The point is that the school average for the grade is 88%. 88% people! Way above what average should be and I refuse to think that in a grade of 90 grade 1 kids they are mostly above the average child. Sadly, we are not given the Education department average and that's the part that scares me. What would the average be for your standard child in your standard government school? What should these averages reflect? I would guess average should be about 60% or what do you think? In other words, what I am saying, is that the standard applied by the education department is so low, it is a disgrace. And that I am totally thankful we have the option of being able to have our kids in a school that has an average of 88%.

Anybody else had these evaluations back for their kids and what has your school's average? We all know that the standards are being dropped all the time but is it really this bad?

BTW I had some mails and tweets following on my last post about the colouring in table cloths and possibly selling them. I want to get an idea if this is a marketable option. Would anyone be interested in buying something like that, themed for  your child's party, or just one as a gift, or treat - maybe as a stocking filler? They will sell for about R50 each and covers about 1 and a half of those plastic kiddy tables.