Dropping pass rates poses threat to quality of education

A proposal by the Department of Basic Education to drop the pass requirements for Grades 7 to 9 has raised alarms bells this week.

The pass requirements for Grades 7 to 9 were increased some years ago, with the aim of improving the quality of education and in line with the National Development Plan.

These were not unrealistic goals – pass marks of 50% for home language and 40% for mathematics, and the compulsory passing of maths for promotion.

In December last year, we were justifiably alarmed by reports that the pass mark for maths in the Senior Phase had been dropped to just 20%.

This “special condonation” for the 2016 academic year was issued in the National Assessment Circular No.3 of 2016.

The minister issued a statement, saying that there was no cause for concern, as it was a temporary measure meant to ease the transition into higher pass requirements.

“The circular does not undermine the policy intention of CAPS [curriculum and assessment policy statements] on raising the bar in terms of promotion requirements by having taken the bold step of making mathematics a compulsory promotion/progression requirement. Nor, does it limit efforts to improve mathematics attainment.

“However, in raising standards, there is a need for a gradual transition from the current to the higher envisaged standards, hence this policy review that is underway and this interim condonation dispensation.”

And yet, the minister has now confirmed a move to do exactly this: scrap the higher requirements. That isn’t a gradual transition – that’s reversing the idea. The crux of the matter is this: learners in the Senior Phase appear to be struggling to master less than half of the course content.

Clearly there is a problem with the quality of learning happening in the Senior Phase, and we see the impact of these low expectations later on when learners reach the Further Education and Training (FET) phase.

A significant proportion of learners fail grades repeatedly, which either bottlenecks the system completely or results in the high dropout rate between Grade 10 and 11 we have seen.

The department has had to implement sweeping progression policies to make sure enough learners are pushed through the system as a result.

Surely the immediate response would be to determine what was affecting the quality of learning and rectify it? Resourcing and teaching quality in many South African schools is poor – it is up to the department to make plans to fix them as leaders.

There is also something to be said about the uncertainty that the chopping and changing of pass requirements causes. One of the reasons proposals like this cause alarm and receive attention is that we are never certain of the department’s direction. Is the goal to make the education system better? Or just to look better?

It is high time that the minister takes a stand and sticks with it. If this is truly to be a “system on the rise”, dropping pass rates is not the answer.

Ollis is member of parliament.

‘ ‘ Resourcing and teaching quality in many SA schools is poor