The North West Department of Education said it is pleased that the annual Winter Camps Programme for the Grade 12 learners in the province are proceeding smoothly across the 124 camps with 31 159 matriculants.MEC Viola Motsumi, has reaffirmed the department’s commitment to improving the final matric outcomes.“Winter camps are more than just revision. They are a critical intervention to ensure that no learner is left behind. We do this with the door purpose of closing learning gaps and building confidence before year-end exams. We applaud all our educators and support teams who are working tirelessly during the winter break,” said Motsumi.Meanwhile, speaking on YOU FM Newshour, the department spokesperson Mphata Molokwane, reiterated the importance of the camps and their intentions to learners.“These camps are crucial to learners in revising critical subject content and bridging learning gaps ahead of the final examinations,” remarked Molokwane. The Department has undertaken to ensure that the teaching and learning take place under secure and conducive environments.“To ensure learner safety and wellbeing, schools have proactively engaged nearby clinics and hospitals to provide emergency support services during the camp period. We have also roped in SGB’s, parents and Community Policing Forums to ensure safety of both learners and their educators,” explained the spokesperson. Furthermore, the department said that it has engaged teacher unions, particularly for educators who are expected to continue working even during the school winter holidays.“We have consulted organised labour unions to try and explain the importance of these winter camps to learners. We have also applied other criteria of selecting educators who are performing very well in subjects that are prioritized at these camps.As you can recall it’s not all the subjects that are being taught to learners, so we have taken educators who provide critical subjects such as Science, Technology, Economic Management, etc, who are also assisted by subject advisors,” Molokwane elaborated.The department also encouraged parents, communities, and school management teams to continue supporting learners throughout the programme as it is scheduled to run until 18th July.The province achieved 87.5% matric pass rate in 2024, marking a 5.9% improvement compared to the 81.63% pass rate in 2023. This improvement secured the province’s fourth-place position among all South African provinces.
