This week the "matrics" (actually, National Senior Certificate candidates) write their "prelims" or "trial exams". It is one of many, many tests of knowledge these grade 12s would have been subjected to in 2024. These are genuine efforts by teachers to get as many pupils over the line as possible.
Now that I have worked intensely in high schools over the past year, I have seen things up close and changed some of my thinking from the lofty heights of my neat-and-tidy university office.
First of all, most children cannot do "pure maths" at this stage of their high school careers. It is as simple as that. Yes, they all have the potential to do the real maths if the groundwork was laid in the foundation years — such as an adequate understanding of the number concept. But when grade 12 learners still struggle with the application of the Bodmas heuristic to solving a simple equation, then the lights are out. So let them do maths lit for at least they are getting some mathematics, even if watered down to the absolute basics.
Truth is, like the Olympic athlete in Paris, there is little the coach can do at this stage other than inspire, encourage and relax the competitor for track and field events
The pressure from provincial departments on struggling schools is immense and so principals and teachers scramble to avoid the scrutiny and embarrassment of official sanction. It is a vicious cycle. And this is where school leaders often buckle under pressure and hold back learners in grade 11 if their marks indicate they will not pass grade 12 short of divine intervention.
This is where churches come in. Every struggling school will have a pastor or priest coming in to offer prayers. These are well-meaning people but my understanding of holy writ is simple: faith without works is dead. Unless you believe that the Almighty has time to ponder the matric marks of a school as opposed to the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza.
I agree, by the way, with holding back grade 11 learners and having them repeat the grade until they pass. This means doing teaching differently, for simply teaching the same subjects to the same strugglers in the same way does not mean the failing pupil will pass with the second or third or fourth attempt. But if I were a principal, I would certainly want to get good results and not postpone failure to the high-stakes grade 12 finals.
The prelims will give schools a good sense of what they can expect in the finals which start in late October. Even so, there are too many such exams. Matric teachers are drilled to believe that they must get the learners (and I use the word loosely) to write all the old final exam papers from five or more years ago. Guess what? Unlike in my day, not only are all these papers downloadable for free, but you can also download the answers! It has never been so easy to pass matric, with thousands of YouTube videos on every subject in the CAPS curriculum.
Truth is, like the Olympic athlete in Paris, there is little the coach can do at this stage other than inspire, encourage and relax the competitor for track and field events. The hard training should have been done before this very public examination of mind or body.
Learners do not believe that, of course, and so thousands will overstudy and fail. Many will stay up all night before a final exam and cry bitterly when they hit a blank on entering the venue. I have heard some strange theories of learning from desperate pupils, like running in the early morning to free up space in the brain. Modern science has never been so redundant.
Wise school leaders should have the courage to get off this hamster wheel of the matric exam. Build the school from the bottom up and take the blows that come with grade 12 pressures. Select the best grade 8 learners. Deploy your best teachers to teach the grade 8 subjects like geography, science and mathematics (just like, by the way, I believe that the best professors should teach first-years). Instil discipline and leadership with the incoming class of grade 8s and give them aspirational goals from the very start, rather than have them succumb to ubiquitous cultures in schools that focus on "getting students over the line".
That kind of long-term thinking takes enormous courage and exceptional leadership precisely because of the short-term relief that comes with focusing on grade 12 achievement. But then again, whether in politics or business or academics, the best leaders think about building strong systems over the long term, rather than look for the empty thrills of short-term success.
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