Good luck to Class of 2016

MATRIC exams are under way this week, with 827 324 pupils writing for their senior certificate, 150 183 part-time pupils among them. The Basic Education Department is printing 258 question papers, involving 11.1 million question copies, and 10.7 million answer scripts nationally.

More than 69 000 invigilators have been assigned to oversee the exams at 6 797 centres.

This year, 53 146 full time candidates and 13 185 part-time registered for the 2016 National Senior Certificate in the Western Cape.

One of the main concerns, apart from the overall pass rate, is the volume of “progressed” pupils. It is a controversial policy, and the number has increased, from 64 673 nationally to 104 136. In the Western Cape, the number had dropped from 4 847 last year to 3 019 for this year – meaning at least closer to home the trend is under control.

The justifiable concern is that these children are especially vulnerable. Their readiness is very much in doubt in the light of the deficit they started the year with.

The largest teacher union, Sadtu, also sees a two-phase examination for these pupils, in November and next June, as a departmental dodge to keep them out of the national pass rate the minister will announce in January.

As the pupils readied themselves, it emerged education officials admired Zimbabwe’s splitting of subjects, and are mulling it. Their first consideration, though, should be to shore up the foundations of school education first.

THE FOUNDATIONS are anything but solid. Before these pupils embark on ambitious advances, they must have the basics right. All too often our education authorities have embarked on progressive measures which have turned into anything but, because the fundamentals were not yet accomplished.

Another factor to ponder in splitting subjects into their various disciplines is the swelling of the teacher corps.

And do we have enough specialist teachers to handle, say, geometry?