Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga acknowledges that public schools cannot be compared to private schools, the Cape Times reported on Tuesday.

Speaking after the release of the annual national assessment results on Monday, she said public schools were overcrowded and less privileged.

“You cannot compare bananas to apples, a Rolls Royce with a Toyota,” she told the newspaper.

The annual national assessment is a testing programme which requires all schools to conduct the same, grade-specific language and maths tests for Grades 1 to 6 and Grade 9.

More than seven million pupils wrote the tests in September, revealing low levels of literacy and maths.

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