2016 matric results well received‚ but many say there’s much room for improvement

05 January 2017 - 11:16 By Staff Writer
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The matric class of 2016 achieved a pass rate of 72.5%‚ up from 70.7% in the previous year.

RISING STAR: Conrad Strydom, the top matric pupil of 2016, is congratulated by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga
RISING STAR: Conrad Strydom, the top matric pupil of 2016, is congratulated by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga
Image: DAYLIN PAUL

The pass rate reflects the achievement of the 442 672 matriculants who passed their National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams‚ Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Wednesday evening.

Motshekga was speaking in Midrand‚ Johannesburg‚ where she announced the national results.

Some welcomed the results‚ while others said there was still room for improvement.

Here is a selection of the reactions to the announcement:

The African National Congress Women's League The league said it “congratulates the ANC-led government and all the stakeholders on this achievement”‚ and applauded “its pro-poor policies aimed at ensuring equality in basic education”‚ secretary-general Meokgo Matuba said.

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She did‚ however‚ “note with dismay various portals benefiting from charging learners specific amount for them to get their NSC results”.

Matuba also appealed “to all South Africans to offer moral support to all learners who did not do well in 2016” and encouraged them “to enrol into government-established programmes to improve their results”.

The Democratic Alliance

“The DA congratulates all learners who performed well in their National Senior Certificate examinations‚ and we thank the many excellent and dedicated teachers who sacrifice so much to educate our nation’s children‚” the party’s Gavin Davis said.

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“It is tempting to interpret the modest improvement in the matric pass rate (from 70.7% to 72.5%) as a sign that we are moving in the right direction‚ particularly after last year’s precipitous 5% drop.

“But to do so would be to ignore the most significant aspect of the matric results‚ and that is the continued poor performance in the big three provinces of the Eastern Cape‚ Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal‚ which obtained 59.3%‚ 62.5% and 66.4% respectively.”

Davis said it was “no coincidence that the worst performing provinces in matric 2016” were those where the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union “is most dominant”.

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“Unless Motshekga deals decisively with Sadtu‚ these provinces will remain perennial poor performers‚” he said.

AfriForum

The civil rights group congratulated “all matriculants who successfully completed their school career in 2016 and also thanks their teachers who made this feat possible”.

“At the same time‚ AfriForum expresses serious concerns about the official overall pass rate of 72.5% in 2016‚ compared to 70.7% in 2015. When one looks at the number of learners who attended grade one in public schools in 2005 and completed grade twelve successfully in 2016‚ the actual pass rate is less than 50%‚” said deputy CEO Alana Bailey.

  • BREAKING: Motshekga announces 72.5% matric pass rate‚ up 2.5% over previous yearThe matric class of 2016 have achieved a pass rate of 72.5%‚ up from 70‚7% in the previous year. The pass rate reflects the achievement of the 442 672 matriculants who passed their National Senior Certificate exams‚ Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Wednesday evening.

She noted that “a report of the education department indicates that 1 207 996 learners enrolled for grade one in public schools in 2005” ‚ but “less than half of that number of public school learners passed matric in 2016”.

“The minister’s reassurances that the drop-out rate of learners is receiving attention‚ are not convincing. It is even more disquieting to note that this unsatisfactory pass rate is announced despite contentious mark adjustments‚” said Bailey.

“Adjusted marks is a quick fix which might help learners to pass now‚ but will disadvantage them in future when their lack of knowledge and insight hold them back‚” she said.

Economic Freedom Fighters

The party’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said: “The Department of Basic Education still has a long way to go and its chest-beating exercise does not help if we consider the entire generation of these learners from 12 years ago.”

He added: “The drop-out rate remains high and the majority of the youth that have been left out in the past 12 years cannot be accounted for.

“Of the 2016 matric cohort‚ when they started‚ they were 1.10million‚ but only 662 612 sat for the matriculation exam. Taken the number of those who passed‚ which is 442 672‚ the real pass rate for 2016 is not 76.2 %‚ but is in fact 40.9%.

“This means that the remaining 60% has either failed or dropped out‚ and of the dropped out‚ many cannot be accounted for even beyond the TVET colleges.”

The National Teachers Union

The unions said the “results are a living testimony that educators in this country are doing their level best to improve the education system of the Republic of South Africa‚ and that learners are also pulling hard to advance themselves”.

It congratulated “all the teachers and their learners for their good work even though they are still working under terrible conditions in terms of infrastructure‚ resources and support – and (for the teachers) quite untenable employment conditions”.

The union said it was opposed to the policy of progressing learners from grade 11 to grade 12 as this “undermines the importance of relying on the classroom teachers in their assessment of the progress of learners”.

“In the process‚ learners become saddled in grade 12 with academic demands for which they are not ready‚ thereby breaking them down further psychologically and emotionally‚” it added. The Congress of the People

The party’s Dennis Bloem said that “most pleasing to us is the minister’s acknowledgement of school and community support for learners”.

“Poorer learners do not have the resources to pay for additional tuition and without the sacrifice of teachers and the supportive commitment of communities‚ they would have lagged behind. Thankfully this did not happen‚” he said.

“While the examination monitoring body‚ Umalusi‚ has declared the 2016 examinations fair‚ valid and credible‚ and we are satisfied that incremental progress is being made‚ let us not forget that nearly a quarter of those who took the exams did not pass.

“Here again‚ the minister put her finger on the problem. Fewer than 5% of parents read to their children. Without an active reading culture and without substantial emphasis on the reading and study of quality literature‚ our education will have a serious carry over of an important deficit.”

– TMG Digital

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