Covid disruptions leave a mark as grade 8s battle to adjust to high school

A shocking 435 of the 509 pupils in Grade 8 at Masana Secondary School in Mpumalanga and 300 of the 418 learners at Pakamani Senior Secondary School in Eastern Cape failed the first quarterly tests.

And at another no-fee paying school, Magigwana Secondary in Thulamahashe, Mpumalanga, 39 of the 69 pupils flunked these assessments.

In contrast, with the exception of Pretoria Central High, where 141 of the 251 Grade 8s failed, nine other former Model C schools surveyed randomly by Sunday Times Daily said they did not register a high failure rate in this grade.

In a bid to improve the pass rate, Pretoria Central High has extended the school day by an hour from Mondays to Thursdays, while other schools are calling emergency meetings with parents and getting teachers to come up with improvement plans.

However, both no-fee and former Model C schools agreed that the Covid-19 disruptions to schooling in 2020 and 2021, including rotational teaching, had a negative impact on the Grade 8 results.

A teacher at Masana Secondary said the Grade 8s missed out on a huge amount of teaching time because of rotational classes last year.

“We will definitely be conducting extra classes for the Grade 8s.”

He said, however, their Grade 12s achieved a 93% pass percentage in last year’s matric exams.

A source close to Pakamani Senior Secondary said a meeting of parents will be called after the Easter weekend to discuss the results.

A large number of pupils failed economic and management sciences, social sciences and maths.

“The school management team will meet teachers teaching these subjects to chart a way forward. They will have to come up with an intervention plan.”

The source said while the grade 8s produced the worst results, the matrics registered a 68.82% pass rate.

Rotational learning also played a role, and with the 100% return to daily attendance from February pupils were overwhelmed by the volume of work.

—  Thomas Hlongwane, principal of Pretoria Central High

Admitting that the grade 8s at Pretoria Central High had performed “extremely poorly”, the principal, Thomas Hlongwane, said a possible reason was the transition from primary to high school, which is “just too big”.

“Rotational learning also played a role and, with the 100% return to daily attendance from February, pupils were overwhelmed by the volume of work.”

Said Hlongwane: “We get our pupils from feeder schools in the townships where they did English first additional language and now have to do English home language and Afrikaans first additional language. Grade 8 and 9 becomes a big struggle.”

Johan Wiehahn, principal of Hoërskool Linden in Johannesburg, where 33 of the about 168 Grade 8s failed, said the last time they had proper contact teaching time was in 2019 when they were in grade 5 in primary school.

“I am not blaming anybody but there are certain skills they missed in primary school. The Grade 8s battle to adapt; that’s the biggest problem.”

He said there was normally “positive progress” from the end of term one, and with interventions “you may land up at the end of the year with probably three failures”.

Eugene Rooyakkers, principal of Benoni High in Ekurhuleni, said there were large gaps in subject knowledge that were “skipped in primary school”.

“This is either because the adjusted teaching plans issued by the department of basic education cut the required material or the teachers themselves decided to omit sections.”

He said his Grade 8 teachers were not progressing at the correct pace because they had to teach Grade 7 material to provide the correct grounding for grade 8 work.

“The reading level of pupils is, in many cases, far below where it should be.”

Even if we get back to normal schooling for the rest of this year, we will require at least two years of extra effort and input from schools to get the grade 8, 9 and 10 pupils to the required standard.

—  Shaun Simpson, headmaster of Rondebosch Boys’ High

Shaun Simpson, headmaster of Rondebosch Boys’ High in Cape Town, said there was a “noticeable rise in maths failures”, adding: “These are commonly high in the first term as pupils adjust to the high school environment.” 

He said they had implemented strategies to allow for smaller classes and “more remediation during and after school time for those boys who are struggling”.

“Even if we get back to normal schooling for the rest of this year, we will require at least two years of extra effort and input from schools to get the Grade 8, 9 and 10 pupils to the required standard.”

Mark Smith, principal of Westerford High in Cape Town, said 89% of Grade 8s achieved an aggregate of more than 50%.

“A total of 21 Grade 8s were identified as ‘needing support’.”

He said while the first term was not the best indicator of pupils’ progress, “it has shown that we have a few more pupils than normal who are struggling”.

Smith said different subjects have different types of assessments “which don’t always give an accurate reflection of how pupils are really doing”.

“An exam is a much better indicator.”

Doug Prior, principal of Stirling High in East London, said they had 10% more Grade 8s passing this year compared with last year.

“The children coming from different schools also use term one as an adjustment period in Grade 8, and after the first term where peer tutoring and extra lessons take place, these pupils seem to adjust.”

Andy Crighton, deputy principal of Bryanston High in Johannesburg, said their pass rate was 87% and this “usually rises to 98%-99% by year end”.

Heath Samuel, chair of the governing body of Jeppe Boys’ High in Johannesburg, said there were failures “but not significantly more than usual”.

Educational psychologist Andreas Baron said moving from Grade 7 to 8 can be stressful and “in some cases pupils need a term or two to acclimatise and find their feet”.

Mpumalanga’s education department said reports on the results were being consolidated while North West said it was yet to do so. The Eastern Cape and Western Cape education departments were analysing the data.