School ‘progression’ policy under spotlight

EDUCATION MEC Debbie Schäfer is “exploring the possibility” of introducing provincial regulations, which will compel schools to ensure pupils have met the required pass marks for their grade before being progressed to the next one.

“The national progression policy has caused some concern for us, as it appears to have given learners the idea that they do not have to work or attend school regularly, as they will simply be progressed to the next grade if they fail more than once in a phase,” Schafer said last week.

She has proposed several amendments to the Western Cape Provincial School Education Act of 1997 and called for comments on the proposals in Friday’s Provincial Gazette.

The national progression policy, which has received much criticism, determines pupils may only be retained once in a school phase, for example, if they have already repeated Grade 10 or 11 and then failed one of these two grades again, they have to advance to the next one.

Last year the governing body and staff of Spine Road High School in Mitchells Plain expressed their concerns about progression in a letter to the Cape Argus.

“The progressing of pupils who fail to make the required criteria to pass makes a mockery of the standards that we wish to entrench in our schools,” it stated.

Schäfer said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga had made some

welcome changes to the regulations governing progression, but only in respect of the Further Education and Training phase (Grades 10 to 12).

These changes, announced by the Department of Basic Education last year, include that the pupil has to attain 30 percent in at least four subjects.

This has to include the language of learning and teaching of the school.

One of the other changes required a pupil should have attended school on a regular basis and should not have been absent for 20 or more days without a valid reason.

Schäfer is now proposing a more drastic change.

“I would like to explore the possibility of passing provincial regulations that will compel schools to ensure that learners actually achieve the required pass marks before they are progressed.”

Riyaadh Najaar, chairman of the Progressive Principals’ Association, said he he would support this proposal.

The proposal, he said, would help to encourage pupils to work hard to make the requirements, instead of simply accepting they would be progressed to the next grade.

Najaar is also the principal of Spine Road High School.

This year there are more than 3 000 pupils in matric in the Western Cape who were at the end of last year progressed into Grade 12.