Matric exam registrations drop by more than 2,000

The difference in numbers in the districts ranges from hundreds to more than 1,000

There are 2,370 matric pupils in the Eastern Cape who failed to register for their final exams.

The figures appear in a department of education report.

The October report says nine of the Eastern Cape’s 12 education districts have seen a decrease in grade 12 registration numbers from 82,258 in 2019 to 79,888 in 2020.

According to the October 2020 report, the districts of Alfred Nzo East, Amathole East, Buffalo City, Chris Hani East and West, Joe Gqabi, Nelson Mandela Metro, OR Tambo Coastal and Inland took the hardest knock.

The difference in numbers in the districts ranges from hundreds to more than 1,000.

Amathole East experienced the largest drop in registrations, from 8,242 to 6,901 — a difference of 1,341.

Alfred Nzo West, Amathole West and Sarah Baartman were the only districts which saw a slight increase in numbers.

DA MPL Yusuf Cassim said the drop would affect the matric pass rate.

Cassim said: “Our province already has a school dropout crisis which has artificially increased our matric pass rates.

“This happens as weaker learners who need the most support are essentially culled from the system rather than supported to complete their schooling.

“The decrease in matric registration numbers is an extension of our dropout crisis where struggling learners, who in many cases are socially vulnerable, fall by the wayside.”

“This phenomenon has been exacerbated by the lockdown. The department of education has done nothing to track, identify and support these learners as it suits it to artificially inflate its matric pass rate.”

Department of education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the drop would not affect the matric pass rate “as the results are calculated by percentage ”.

“Normally the registration is between 80,000 to 82,000. We are still in the range and it depends on the number of candidates on previous grades,” he said.

Thami Makuzeni, of the Public Servants Association in the Eastern Cape, said the department “needs to dig deeper into why these figures have dropped. They can’t throw their hands in the air and accept the decrease in numbers. They need to interrogate why we are here and figure out interventions which need to be taken.”

UDM MPL Mncedisi Filtane said the “real” drop in grade 12 numbers “persists throughout the period of schooling through lower grades. The number of learners who start off is always substantially higher than the final registration in grade 12.”

Naptosa Eastern Cape CEO Loyiso Mbinda said the drop was evidence of pupils who “got lost in transit” between grades 1 and 12.

At national level, a new form of a grade 12 report card is in the works. The department of basic education and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation are piloting a “grade 12 school report card” designed to provide a more comprehensive picture of each institution’s performance.

The report card was sparked by mounting criticism that the widely used grade 12 pass rate was a poor gauge of school quality or progress.

Schools will also be compared with “like ” schools, or those from the same quintile ranking.

The department needs to ‘ dig deeper into why these figures have dropped ’