Matric pupils face new stress
PUPILS were experiencing a “different” type of stress in matric, unlike those of a decade ago, says education expert Wayne Hugo.
Hugo, who travels across KZN visiting various schools in rural and urban areas, said matric pupils had always felt challenged.
“Matric has always been a high stake year,” he said. “So if you look back there have been accounts of suicide, depression and collapses. This happens when you have a high stake test exit from school.”
Matric was generally held by society to be a “worthwhile, accurate qualification,” he added. “Matric holds validity and this makes it stressful.”
Hugo said anecdotally, pupils were feeling more stressed, or showing increased signs of stress. “One of the first reasons is that within Caps (Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements), they have become far clearer about what is it you have to learn. There are all sorts of support structures in place to show you what it is that you need to learn.
“All textbooks are very similar. It’s been cleared by Caps, this is what you need to know and this is what is going to be tested.
“But now, the problem pupils face is that they have to learn all the content. What Caps has done has paced the knowledge out: they tell you every day what you have to learn and what you have to do.”
Hugo said the big question was: What happens if you fall behind? “You have to catch up. In classrooms across South Africa, the teachers are following the Caps curriculum accordingly,” he said.
“I visit schools across KZN and ask teachers and pupils what happens if you don’t understand. The response from teachers is that there is no time and you have to move forward.”
Hugo said pupils were aware of what they were supposed to learn, and they knew they had missed out on some work, but there was no time, because pupils were constantly learning new work.
“This is a completely different kind of stress, felt by both teacher and pupil, because they have been driven to continuously move forward, even if they don’t understand or are missing stuff.
“Ten years ago, you didn’t know what the content was. That too was stressful, but it was a different kind of stress.”
UKZN educationlist Pete Jugmohan said the pressure for places at tertiary institutions was placing added stress on pupils.
“It’s a cost factor. Access to tertiary institutions is not cheap. Pupils always ask: ‘Can I afford it, can my parents afford it?’”
Jugmohan said pupils also worried about jobs afterwards.
But for Jugmohan the curriculum has been the most “worrying factor”.
“Caps is basically highway robbery. For me it is something that has not been piloted and is willy-nilly and totally unfair.
“For example, in the past pupils had to learn from (chapters) 1-10. With Caps, they learn 1,3, 7, 9 – and what happens to the rest of 2, 4 ,6 and so forth? In essence students don’t get the full curriculum.
“In the past teachers had the latitude to engage the curriculum and bring their own expertise and experience.
“It’s very prescribed now, from my understanding, and there is no room for the teacher to use his or her own innovation.”
Jugmohan said the “gaps” were clear when pupils entered tertiary level.
Relebohile Moletsane, UKZN professor of rural education, said there was a twofold approach when looking at matric stress.
“There is pressure in well-performing schools for matrics to keep the standard and keep the high percentage.
“Some pupils are made to register for additional subjects, for example additional maths, but most of these children come from middle-income homes and there is support from schools and homes.
“On the other hand, for children who go to poor schools, nothing much happens in all their years, and suddenly in matric the teachers realise they have to catch pupils up and there is an added pressure.”
Moletsane said children were made to attend Saturday classes and holiday camps.
‘If the education system was right, we wouldn’t need extra classes or holiday camps.
“Let’s get teaching and learning right from grade R, so in pupils’ matric year, we don’t put pressure on them and cram everything in one year,” Moletsane said.
“Personally I don’t think you can learn in one year of matric what you didn’t learn in 13 years of school.
“It’s just putting pressure on children and we won’t get the return we are looking for.”
Increasingly, what you get instead, it seems, is young people who are seriously stressed.