Around half the learners enrolled in 2003 made it to matric.

[Brett Nortje]

While the country largely celebrates the 75.8% matric pass rate, the more concerning statistic is the half a million learners who dropped out of school before reaching matric:

- In 2003, 1.1 million children were enrolled in grade 1.
- Of those 1.1 million learners, only 530 000 made it to matric.
- From the pool of 530 000 learners who reached matric, only 400 000 of those learners passed their matric exams. (Those 400 000 make up the 75.8% pass rate.)
- Further to this, only 150 000 learners passed with bachelor passes, allowing them access to a university education.

This news came today. the best way to ensure that everybody makes it to matric is first of all to get kids comfortable in school and speaking the same language. if they were to feel like they belong then they are half way to writing exams, all the teachers have to do then is make them listen.

Teachers may make children listen by making them feel like they don't fit in when they rebel. if they were to make them do a oral if they speak the next day, they won't learn anything as they will just want to get through it, but, it is a good punishment that takes minimal teaching time. they will not be speaking after that! if they are not speaking there is the chance they are listening, yes?

[Brett Nortje]

Teaching a baby to speak is the role of the parents, the child learns about 'objects' like mommy and daddy, and then learns about linking words, then descriptive words. so, when a child gets through preschool, they have a basic vocabulary.

If you want to teach your children to read quickly you need to learn the words before the letters and how to pronounce them. learning each letter takes time, and it is time wasted. the best way to learn a foreign language is in phrases, i have a basic understanding of word association between germanic languages or languages of europe.

So, teaching your children that a long word takes a long time to say will help them gain confidence quickly. teaching them with stencils will train their hands and fingers to control a pen and make the correct print letters, as cursive is a waste of time, it was supposedly a touch of class back in the day, yes?

Now, to teach them the phrases would be down to object association. you could show them a picture of something, say the word, then show them the word. this will teach them first of all how long it should be, or, for their minds, "big!" then, you need to show them the letters, where there is a 'filling' of ink. this will teach them to look at the images instead of one letter at a time - think of when they play with lego, they will learn that the 'dots' make useful things, things you can use, and there is always a hole or a dot. this is like teaching blind people to read, you could say. then, they will learn that the 'dots' or 'lots of dots' make up the word, and then they can learn each clump of dots as a letter after they are communicating in terms they can understand, of course.

[adrianh]

How many kids have you got, how old are they and how are they doing at school?