Performance of some KZN matric pupils worries education department

The decline in the first-term results of 2023 matric candidates in the Umlazi and Pinetown districts has the provincial department of education worried about the potential affect on the targeted pass rate.

The number of pupils in the two districts is 41,105, or almost 40% of the KZN total,  meaning their results will go a long way in determining whether the province meets its target of an 88% pass rate for 2023.

That emerged during the final round of the department’s support visits to the 12 districts in the province at Bright Future Special School in Newlands East, Durban, on Thursday.

Head of department Nkosinathi Ngcobo has been conducting visits with the department's top managers since May 31 to monitor the implementation of the department’s academic improvement plan, as well as to offer support to districts, circuits and schools.

“We are here to check the performance of our learners after the first term. The analysis of both districts shows that in some subjects we’re on track to improve but there are a few areas of concern — such as mathematics and geography,” he said.

Of concern is the fact that the two districts have produced unsatisfactory results in some key subjects — mainly isiZulu home language, geography and mathematics — during the March tests when compared to the 2022 cohort.

The most popular subject in both districts is isiZulu home language.

Umlazi has more than 13,000 pupils but only 62% passed the first term compared to 89.9% in the same period last year. Pinetown has dropped from 98.5% in 2022 to the 91.3% of this year’s 14,000 pupils.

Ngcobo told TimesLIVE that they also didn’t achieve 100% in the first term of 2022 but they cannot stop worrying since “you can’t pass the year having failed the home language”.

“Our concern in isiZulu is that even if you perform at 99% we consider that an underperformance because we demand 100%. Historically, we haven’t had [so many] learners failing isiZulu. Though it’s not bad it’s not 100% and that could affect our results,” he said.

Mathematics literacy is the next-biggest subject with Umlazi and Pinetown having 11,000 and 12,700 pupils respectively taking the subject. Umlazi made a slight improvement with 71.7% from last year’s 66.5% while Pinetown went from 84.5% in 2022 to 60.1% this year.

“Maths lit is the one that needs to get us over the line,” remarked Dr Raymond Penniston, KZN chief director for examination assessment and quality assurance. “That is because a total of 103,000 of the 174,000 matriculants chose the subject in the province.”

The two districts will also need to improve on mathematics (or “pure maths”) where the province has set a minimum of a 65% pass. Pinetown is close with 55% of its 6,000 pupils passing but that is still a huge regress from the 83.6% of last year. Umlazi has its work cut out as it stands at 49% of 9,000, which is a slight improvement from last year's 47%.

Penniston told TimesLIVE that the department was concerned by the number of pupils choosing maths literacy over “pure maths”.

“We had a maths summit this year where [we decided] we want to go back to being a maths province, like before. In the previous years our maths numbers used to be more than that of maths lit but now it’s the opposite. We have 103,000 writing maths lit but only 64,000 in maths, hence we’re in a drive to make more learners take maths because jobs and career opportunities are better,” he said.

Ngcobo said there was a perception that mathematics literacy was easier and some learners did not have the confidence that they could do well in pure mathematics.

“The results in the past, though, have shown that maths literacy is not necessarily easy. There are learners who end up opting for it but when you see their results you realise that this learner who got an 'A' in literacy could have may be got a 'C' in pure maths,” he said.

He said the department would be embarking on a guidance programme to eradicate the “phobia” of pure mathematics.

“We may have varying degrees of capabilities in mathematics but I don’t believe that the patterns we see represent our potential. Our target is that by 2030 at least 60% of our learners are doing and passing the subject,” he said.

There was also a significant drop in the geography marks — Umlazi fell from 68% to 54% and Pinetown went from 88% to 66%.

Penniston said the whole province had experienced a marked regress in geography, possibly because they were writing a new paper with a new format this year that they are still trying to adapt to.

There was also a regress in economics, physical science and English first additional while there was slight improvement in subjects such as technical maths.

Penniston said, “Their performance is worrying. Right now, Pinetown and Umlazi do not occupy the first two positions in the 12 districts — It's Ugu, Umkhanyakude and Amajuba with 12,000, 14,000 and 9,000 respectively — hence we need to get these two districts in terms of numbers passing more learners for us to achieve a much better pass percentage,” he said.

The bright side is the early detection which affords the department time to identify shortcomings and target them.

“This is a marathon, we will still have June exams and the trial, maybe after then we can start indicating where they will rank as a prediction.”

Ngcobo said the department would help the districts to devise ways to improve  their performances as the year progresses.

TimesLIVE

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