Reasons given for drop in pass rate

06 January 2016 - 02:39 By Shaun Smillie, Katharine Child and Graeme Hosken

Thousands of ''progressed'' pupils, poor maths skills, overworked teachers and three poorly performing provinces are among the reasons South Africa's 2015 matric pass rate dropped by five percentage points. Yesterday Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced that 70.4% of the nearly 800000 pupils who sat for last year's matric exams passed. In 2014 the pass rate was 75.9%.Last year a record number of pupils wrote matric. Of the 799306 pupils who wrote, 667925 were full-time, 65671 progressed pupils and 131381 were part-time candidates.Audrey Msimanga, a senior science education lecturer at Wits University, said a big concern for teachers was the progression policy to move Grade 11 pupils into Grade 12."The minister has acknowledged this problem, especially as the progressed learners have brought the overall pass rate down, even though she reported that many of them have done well. If we exclude the progressed pupils the pass rate [for 2015] climbs to 74.1%."Click here to check your matric results.Professor Ruksana Osman, Wits University dean of humanities, said among the serious concerns that emerged from the 2015 matric year was the number of pupils pushed into Grade 12 from Grade 11."[Quality assurer] Umalusi has revealed that 10% of those who were in Grade 12 were pushed into the grade, either because they were on the cusp of passing or because they had failed Grade 11 more than once."She said one needed to be careful about how the pass rate was calculated. "On an individual level we are seeing children exiting the school system without the requisite skills and competency required to enter the tertiary education system and the workplace. This policy of government [pushing failing students through grades] sabotages a child's chances for life."Dean of education at the University of Johannesburg, Sarah Gravett, said there were other reasons besides the progression of pupils that explained the drop in pass rate. Umalusi had explained that the examination papers had a ''higher cognitive demand'', meaning that the standards were higher. There was a certain percentage of questions that required analysis or more reasoning. ''This is a good thing,'' she said.Gravett said that Umalusi reported an ''improvement in the quality of marking and an increased vigilance to decrease incidents of mass copying''.Nic Spaull, a researcher in socio economic policy at Stellenbosch University's economics department, said he would have been worried if the pass rate had not dropped. Spaull said he was not convinced that the progressed-pupil issue was as simple as was being made out."Whether or not a pupil is recorded as a progressed learner is up to the provinces, the districts and the schools."This year we also had about 150000 extra learners compared to last year, which means the pass rate should definitely drop since these students are weaker than average."He said it was important to look at the quality of the passes and how few students made it to matric, as well as the number of pupils who got good results in maths and science.Anthea Cereseto, incoming president of the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of SA, said the union was "especially concerned" by the drop in bachelor passes or university exemption from 28.3% in 2014 to 25.8% of all matriculants in 2015."It is a matter of grave concern that learners have not been able to meet the higher cognitive demands."Spaull said the problems with the education system started in primary school.Msimanga said they had learnt from teachers that pupil literacy was a big concern.For Osman, a major concern is the performance of pupils in mathematics. "The turnaround strategies are not working."..

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