Matric results ‘don’t reflect reality’

THE Department of Basic Education has come under fire from political parties despite an increase in the pass rate.

Some of the parties said the results did not reflect the state of education on the ground.

DA spokesperson on education Baxolile Nodada said this was the first matric cohort that experienced their full Grade 11 and 12 years under national lockdown conditions.

“Despite the matric pass rate announced by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, it is an inflated 76.4% that does not reflect reality. The department does not account for the number of learners who dropped out between Grade 10 to matric, and the real pass rate might be much lower,” Nodada said.

He said the real pass rate was 51.4% because of the dropout rate.

“This year the dropout rate of learners between Grade 10 and Grade 12 was 32.7% (or 341 403 learners),” said Nodada.

ANC education spokesperson Khalid Sayed welcomed the results with mixed feelings. He congratulated the class of 2021 for showing resilience and improving the pass rate.

“However, we are disappointed that the Western Cape has not improved significantly from last year’s overall results. It upped its total pass rate by 1.3% from 2020 to 81.2%, and is the third best performing province, behind Gauteng and the Free State.

“Despite this, we welcome the improvement in the district pass rate as the number of districts with a pass rate above 80% has increased to six. We further call on the WCED to put measures in place to support the Metro East District which always achieves below 80%,” Sayed said.

The GOOD Party’s secretary-general, Brett Herron, said: “The increased number of matriculants who completed their 12th year of basic education and the increased outcomes are deeply encouraging.

“We are pleased that the Western Cape has shown an improvement in their results, once again exceeding an 80% pass rate, after falling below 80% previously.”

MPs on the portfolio committee on basic education conducted an oversight visit to the Free State yesterday. The Free State topped all provinces with the highest pass rate.

The portfolio committee said it welcomed the results for this year, and that matriculants had worked hard.

The IFP said it welcomed the results, with the party hoping the minister would address some of the challenges facing the department.

Scottsville Secondary School achieved the greatest improvement in pass rates across the Western Cape, a 34.5% increase.

“This is a good story because it gives other pupils hope now,” said Scottsville principal Henry Hockey.

“We can now say that one can defeat their circumstances and rise above the challenges, no matter what.”

Scottsville pupil Alticia Adonis said that she was overwhelmed as she was the first matriculant in her family.

“I am so overjoyed that I’ve made it this far. There were several times I wanted to give up, but my support system and home carried me through it all,” said Alticia.

Top pupil at the school, Timothy Travis Wilson, was also one to be praised among his friends and teachers at the school as his hard work had paid off.

“I am still shivering with excitement as we speak because I never expected it. I was okay with being number two, I felt that was safe. Never in a thousand years did I think or expect that I would be a top pupil in matric, most of all,” Timothy said.

MEC Debbie Schäfer said that having achieved the greatest improvement in the pass rate last year across the whole province, she looked forward to even a greater improvement this year.

WHILE many experts have lauded the achievements of the matric class of 2021, they cautioned against the results being used as the measure of an effective education system.

Professor Craig Pournara, director: Wits Maths Connect Secondary Project aimed at teachers, warned that the Grade 10 class of 2022 is most in danger as they have had two years of disrupted schooling.

“The problem doesn’t lie in the Grade 12 results, it’s the Grade 8 and 9 results that are the danger indicators. I do believe that they should focus more on this year’s Grade 10s,” he said.

Pournara said the fact that many Grade 8s and 9s were promoted in the past two years, concerns him.

“Many of these learners have forgotten what they learnt in primary school and now they are in Grade 10,” he said.

The national matric pass rate stands at 76.4%, up from 76.2% in 2020. The Free State is the top performing province, with a pass rate of 85.6%, followed by Gauteng at 82.8% and the Western Cape in third place at 81.2%. A total of 255 825 candidates obtained a Bachelor’s pass.

Experts said the results were as expected but agreed that more needed to be done for pupils in the lower grades if the Grade 12 results are to be used as the ultimate indicator of the South African schooling system.

Former head of the Wits School of Education and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic Education, Professor Ruksana Osman, said the results are were as expected and the good news was that there was no downward turn.

“You cannot expect an underperforming province to suddenly perform. Dramatic shifts don’t usually happen. Also, it’s always a modest decline or a modest improvement. But the system is improving,” she said.

On the improvement in the Eastern Cape’s results, Osman said other provinces should look at the initiatives put in place that helped with the province’s good showing.

“Right now we are seeing disaggregated data, we will have a clearer picture later and will also see the impact Covid-19 and other variables had on the results,” she said.

Osman agreed with Education Minister Angie Motshekga that 30% was not the pass rate. Learners are required to achieve a 50% pass in at least five subjects and the remaining two can be in the 30% category. She said stem subjects like maths, technology and science needed more work.

“The world of work looks at the results of these important subjects, so we need to do more to improve those results. I do believe that politics are at play but we are accepting the pass rate. We have a body like Umalusi which is credible. We have not seen any systematic issues,” she said.

Osman added that more needed to be done for poor households, especially in terms of Early Childhood Development centres, teachers and resources for schools.

“Our system is maturing but we cannot become complacent. We also need to look at school leadership, the provisioning of resources and MECs who are accountable.

“We have seen great work from MECs who are very hands-on. We will never eliminate inequality but we can reduce its effects,” she said.

Education Leadership and Policy Studies head at the Wits School of Education, Professor Brahm Fleisch said the 2021 matric results were better than most people had anticipated.

“For the past two years we have had disrupted education and the results show that our learners are much more resilient,” he said.

But Fleisch was at pains to stress that the Grade 12 results should not be used as an indicator to judge the entire schooling system.

“Children in the lower grades are lagging behind in key areas. In 2019, President Ramaphosa said he wanted children by the age of 10 to be able to read with understanding and that’s still not happening.

“There is often the misconception that Grade 12 is the ultimate indicator of an effective schooling system, it is not,” he said.

On the adjustment of marks, Fleisch said it was important to ensure that students were not unnecessarily prejudiced for something that is beyond their control.

“This has happened even before 1994. If a paper has a difficult section, the adjustment makes sure that learners are not negatively impacted,” he said.

He added that at this stage he had no reason to believe politics were at play in the matric results.