Why 'progressing' failures works

Many people criticised the Department of Basic Education's introduction of the progression policy, not knowing that South Africa has one of the highest grade repetition rates in the world - which is a major contributing factor to the high drop-out rates of pupils.

However, the 2016 National Senior Certificate results have shown us that this policy has given hope and opportunity to thousands of pupils who may otherwise have had none.

Pupils who repeat grades often still struggle the following year; they are often over-aged compared to their peers, demotivated, and have low self-esteem. Frustration at the inability to pass Grade 11 often leads pupils to contemplate dropping out of school. This is the reality for approximately 30% of pupils between Grades 10 and 12 who leave school before writing matric examinations.

The progression policy encouraging provinces to condone pupils who have repeated Grade 11 more than once and those considered over-age for that grade.

Imagine the excitement this week when a progressed pupil discovered that not only had he passed matric, but had obtained a Bachelor's pass with distinctions. Thousands of progressed pupils excelled in Grade 12 because we gave them the support and a chance.

For the class of 2016, we saw the largest enrolment of progressed pupils at 108742 registered, up from 65673 in 2015. This was an increase of 43069 learners.

Progressed pupils represented only 16.1% of all Grade 12 candidates. However, if they failed it could have left the department with egg on its face. Hence the Department monitored and tracked these pupils very closely.

Of the progressed pupils, 76510 sat for the full set of examinations in November 2016. The rest wrote three or four subjects in November and will write the rest in June.

Of the progressed pupils who wrote all seven subjects in November, 29384 passed, which represents just under 40% passed.

A further breakdown shows that, of those that passed, 3335 obtained Bachelor passes; 12636 obtained Diploma passes; and 13385 obtained Higher Certificate passes. This is remarkable for pupils who failed Grade 11.

What is even more encouraging is that 2361 of our progressed pupils attained distinctions. These include 49 distinctions in Mathematics, 53 in Physical Science, and 24 in Accounting.

These pupils could have been high school dropouts, but now have the opportunity to either go to university or technical and vocational colleges.

We have learned a lot from this exercise and, by working with provinces, we will continue to provide support for these progressed pupils.

The Free State, Gauteng and North West provided extra-curriculum support for progressed pupils and over 60% of their progressed pupils passed. In future we urge other provinces to do the same.

When we celebrate or critique the results, we must bear in mind that the Grade 12 examinations are not primarily designed to measure whether there is progress in the system as a whole, or even in individual schools.

The main purpose of these examinations is to provide pupils with an exit qualification. We, however, are able to use the results to improve on the progress we are making as a country to provide an inclusive, high quality and efficient basic education for our children.

We will continue to learn from our efforts with progressed pupils to strengthen policy implementation. It is clear the interventions and support need to start much earlier in the education system.

We will continue to closely monitor and support these pupils at the expense of the pass rate percentage in the hopes that each one of them will have the opportunity of a brighter future.

• Mathanzima Mweli is the director-general of basic education. Get tomorrow's paper for an alternate view from Dr Nic Spaull