Behind dismal matric maths and science pass rate
SA’s school system is slowly improving but maths and science results remain dismal
T he improvement in the matric pass rate over the past five years faltered in 2014, dragging maths and science scores back to levels last seen in 2012 and raising the question of why SA continues to produce so few competent passes in these key subjects.
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga, and SA’s school examinations quality assurance body, Umalusi, have stressed that the decline in the pass rate from 78,2% in 2013 to 75,8% last year was expected due to the introduction of the new Caps curriculum, which places higher cognitive demands on learners.
In supplementary reports on the 2014 matric exams, Motshekga writes that this notwithstanding, the overall upward trajectory in the matric results over the past few years testifies to the “stability and maturity” of the school system. She expects recovery from this setback in future years.
However, she adds: “My concern lies with the challenge that we face with mathematics and physical sciences, where we have failed to meet the targets set in the annual performance plan.”
Umalusi council chairman John Volmink told reporters that maths had undergone major improvements in content, with the inclusion of Euclidean geometry among other things. It is because of these stiffer demands that the maths pass rate dropped in nearly every province. Nationally, the maths pass rate declined from 59,1% to 53,5% and the physical science rate dropped from 67,4% to 61,5%.
But even these dismal numbers don’t give the full picture, because they measure the pass rate against the number of pupils who sat the exam, not against the total number of matric pupils, and because the pass rate is set at a low 30%.
For despite government’s acknowledgment of the need to raise maths and science enrolments and attainment in order to address the skills shortage and fuel the economy, in 2014 only about one in seven matrics passed maths and just over one in 10 science with a 40% mark or more.
This means that of the 500 000 learners who wrote matric, just under 80 000 passed maths and just over 62 000 science at the 40% mark. It’s an indication of wasted opportunity that 146 408 pupils who sat the maths exam got less than 40%, as did 105 965 pupils who sat the science exam.
Given that it takes a score of above 50% in these subjects for a learner to pursue courses useful to the economy like engineering, accountancy and commerce at a tertiary level, the numbers of those with useful passes in these subjects remains minuscule. Unfortunately, Motshekga’s department doesn’t provide statistics of passes at the 50% mark.
The issue is not the understandable drop in the pass rates in these subjects in 2014 compared to 2013, but the tiny numbers who pass them well each and every year.
The fact is that the proportion of learners sitting the maths exam has declined from 45,3% of all matrics in 2011 to 42,3% in 2014. There has been a corresponding rise in the proportion of those taking the easier alternative of maths literacy from 55,5% to 58,5% over the same period. As the pass rate for the latter has averaged 86,1% over this time, it’s likely that this switch has artificially buoyed the overall matric pass rate.
A recent study by Nicholas Spaull and Janeli Kotze of the department of economics at Stellenbosch University finds that the maths crisis is rooted in a weak foundation at primary school.
It shows that in SA only the top 16% of grade 3 children are performing at the required level in maths. In that grade the learning gap between the poorest 60% of students and the wealthiest 20% is about three grade levels. This grows to four grade levels by grade 9.
Spaull thinks the solution is to improve the quality of maths teaching in primary
THE KIND OF TRAINING OFFERED TO TEACHERS IS OFTEN OF DUBIOUS QUALITY AND HAS NEVER
BEEN RIGOROUSLY EVALUATED
NICHOLAS SPAULL
school. This requires increased accountability for teacher training, attendance and curriculum coverage, he says, citing a recent study that found that by the end of the year, grade 6 teachers in the North West had covered only 40% of the maths curriculum.
“The kind of training offered to teachers is often of dubious quality and has never been rigorously evaluated,” he says. “It’s also not clear [whether] district officials have the requisite skills to help teachers. We probably need a rigorous audit of subject advisers at the district level, and a thorough audit of maths teacher training courses offered by public and private providers.”
Western Cape education minister Debbie Schäfer agrees: “Teacher quality is a huge issue. We clearly need a new, big-scale intervention in maths and science, mainly to assist teachers with effective teaching methods.”
Motshekga says she is confident that establishing a new, dedicated maths, science and technology directorate in her department will improve the situation.
Another reason for the abrupt drop in the 2014 matric pass rate could be the change in SA’s retention policy, in terms of which learners may be held back only once in their last three years of schooling.
This is designed to stop schools from preventing weaker pupils from sitting the matric exam to shore up the schools’ overall pass rates — a problem that has reached huge proportions. Of the 1,06m learners who were enrolled in grade 10 in 2012 only half sat the matric exam in 2014 (see table).
When expressed as a percentage of the grade 10 enrolment of 2012, last year’s national matric pass rate drops to a mere 37,9% compared with the official figure of 75,8%.
International comparative studies show that in SA only 40% of an original grade 1 cohort graduates from secondary school, compared with much higher figures in Turkey (53%), Brazil (67%) and Chile (72%).
Worse still, fewer than 10% of SA youths obtain 15 years of education (completion of a three-year degree, for example), compared with at least 15% in Columbia and Peru, and 24% in the Philippines and Egypt.
The chief reasons, according to the research of Stellenbosch University academic Martin Gustafsson, are SA’s low quality of primary and secondary education, financial constraints, teenage pregnancies and the lack of vocational opportunities.
SA’s high school drop-out rate wouldn’t matter so much if the Further Education & Training (FET) system offered learners the hope of acquiring useful vocational qualifications and employment prospects.
But that is far from the case. Household surveys show that only 1% of young people who do not hold a matric certificate hold some other non-grade 12 school certificate or diploma, like one issued by an FET college.
“It’s highly problematic that around 60% of SA youth end up with no national or widely recognised educational qualification, despite spending a relatively high number of years in education,” says Spaull. “We need trustworthy, credible exams at the grade 9 level, and legitimate vocational options with clear occupational roles.”
The upshot of the new retention policy for the Western Cape, even though it has the lowest drop-out rate in the country at around 35%, is that it was obliged to push nearly 3 000 learners who failed grade 11 into matric last year.
Of these, 2 792 wrote the matric exam and 30% passed. A surprising 19 of them even obtained bachelor degree passes, but this was achieved with a huge amount of extra effort on the part of these pupils and their teachers, according to Schäfer.
She is particularly proud of the turnaround that has been achieved in Khayelitsha, where the matric pass rate has climbed from 53,6% in 2009 to 76,1% last year. Only one of the 15 Khayelitsha schools categorised as underperforming in 2009 remains so.
The reason, Schäfer says, has to do with excellent leadership from the district manager, a genuine concern and involvement from principals in the vast majority of schools, and greater involvement of parents.
In particular, the management structure in this district has been flattened to make officials who support schools and principals more directly accountable for school performance. In addition, all schools, principals and districts have detailed school improvement plans and targets that they agree to meet each year.
There are also indications that the entire education system is moving in the right direction, judging from the slight improvement in SA’s school performance in international tests.
Motshekga has presided over a number of important reforms like the new Caps curriculum, the rollout of workbooks in maths and language, and the implementation of standardised maths with tightly specified content, and language tests in grades 1-6 and 9.
However, the fact that more than 500 000 children are culled before matric and a further 128 986 were unable to pass matric last year, let alone do well, means that much more needs to be done.