Radical matric reform on the cards
Minister’s task team wants: Pass mark raised to at least 40% in three subjects Sweeping changes to testing and marking Offering maths to be compulsory at all schools Life orientation to be dropped as a test subject Tougher university entrance require
TOUGHER requirements for a basic matric, raising university entrance standards and dumping life orientation are among radical new proposals put forward to save South Africa’s education system.
The Sunday Times can today disclose that the recommendations of a ministerial task team on the National Senior Certificate propose sweeping changes to the way matrics are taught and tested.
Another big change is the re-introduction of mathematics at the growing number of schools that have abandoned the subject.
The proposals are likely to be welcomed by education experts, who say the poor quality of the matric certificate and the generally low level of education offered at South Africa’s public schools are handi- capping South Africa’s young people and not properly preparing them for the world of work.
The acid test for Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga could come when the proposals are put to education union Sadtu, which has been a stumbling block to education reform in the past.
The results of the national senior certificate task team have yet to be made public.
The report — drawn up by eminent education academics — has been given to Motshekga, but has not been openly discussed with trade unions, MECs for education or the cabinet.
Introducing a tougher matric pass rate as well as raising the criteria for a university pass are likely to be widely welcomed, but may prove controversial to a generation of ANC politicians who have been able to
It’s an absolute disgrace that you can pass matric with a mark of 30%
boast of a growing matric pass rate.
The much maligned 30% pass rate has come under increasing fire from experts such as the University of the Free State’s Professor Jonathan Jansen, who this year described it as an “absolute disgrace”.
“I’m ashamed of South Africa. It’s an absolute disgrace that you can pass matric with a mark of 30%. Motshekga is making a giant mistake by boasting about the matric pass rate. It’s an absolute disgrace.”
The committee suggested that requirements for matrics who wanted to study for a degree be changed to passing four subjects — including the language of instruction — at 50%, and two others at 40%.
Life orientation — a post-apart- heid subject introduced to teach pupils about health, careers and citizenship — should be abolished as an exam subject for Grade 12, the report said.
The task team said it believed that the subject — the only one that did not have an external exam set — artificially allowed low-performing pupils to pass matric.
It recommended that parts of the subject such as career counselling and wellbeing be retained without exams.
The document also suggested widespread changes to matric maths and maths literacy and the task team insisted that mathematics be offered at all schools across South Africa.
The committee expressed concern at the increasing number of schools that did not offer maths at all. In 2008, 150 schools did not offer maths; by 2012 this had grown to 286.
The task team also recommended that matrics should not be allowed to take up certain science subjects or a combination of economics and accounting at matric level without doing maths as well.
Some of the issues aimed at teachers include:
The ways in which schools award marks during the year must be monitored so that standards can be universally maintained;
Principals and heads of subjects in schools must be held more accountable for the validity and reliability of schools-based assessment during the matric year because internal standards in schools vary too much at present;
Teachers who moderate the final matric exam must be appointed using stricter criteria than are employed at present;
Teachers marking the final matric exam at all levels of seniority must have the required qualifications and experience;
Teachers marking the final matric exam must be required to demonstrate their competence prior to being appointed;
Non-education-related criteria, such as tribalism or political sectionalism, must be eradicated from the system of appointing teachers marking final matric exams;
Teachers marking final matric
Matric exams for English additional language must be made harder
exams who are found to have provided false information about their experience and qualifications must be prosecuted; and
Teachers marking final matric exams who fail to meet the required standards for marking papers must be barred from continuing to mark, and if they have marked some papers, those be re-marked in full.
The committee also recommended that newspapers no longer be able to publish matric results, but rather focus on “individual success stories” of matrics.
“The extreme embarrassment of candidates who are not successful and are so publicly revealed as failures has serious consequences, and there are cases annually of its lead- ing to self-harm and even suicide,” the report states. Other recommendations include:
The standard of the exams in the language of instruction must be raised and the papers made tougher;
A national Grade 9 exit certificate qualification should be introduced;
Matric exams for English additional language must be made harder because of the language competence demands across the curriculum and for post-school study;
Specifically improving the skills of teachers teaching English additional language;
Modernising vocational training, including the curriculum for technical high schools;
Benchmark reports that clearly highlight serious flaws in the papers be shared more widely; and
A thorough investigation into the standard and the nature of the assessment of African languages at home-language level must be undertaken.
In reaction, Motshekga’s spokesman, Elijah Mhlanga, pointed out that the report had not yet been released. He confirmed that Motshekga had received the report.
“The minister is currently studying the report and she will make an announcement shortly on the recommendations that will be taken forward.
“This should be done soon after presenting the report to the Council for Education Ministers,” Mhlanga said.
THE ministerial task team reviewing the matric exams did not spare the rod when it came to pointing out the many shortcomings in the current system.
It said, however, that the situation was improving.
The team said that, 20 years into democracy, tests revealed that South African pupils were far from achieving minimum, basic competencies across the curriculum.
It said the poorest and most marginalised among these pupils were worst hit by poor quality education.
“If we take the Department of Education’s systemic evaluation of Grade 6 in 2005 as a baseline, learners obtained a national mean score of 38% in the language of learning and teaching, 27% in mathematics, and 41% in natural science,” the task team found.
Six years later, the results of the 2011 annual national assessments, showed achievements at a similar level to 2005.
“In this assessment of almost six million primary school learners in February 2011, Grade 3 learners achieved an average of only 35% for literacy and 28% for numeracy, while Grade 6 learners managed 28% for languages and 30% for mathematics,” the report said.
These results varied markedly between provinces and between poorer and wealthier areas. In Grades 1 to 6, pupils in wealthy areas received scores 10% to 15% higher than their counterparts in poorer areas.
There was some good news in the findings, including:
An improvement in examination systems since 1994; and
An increase in the pass rate since 2008. This was attributed to effort, support and develop- ment throughout the system. It said significant progress had been made in establishing a national standard exam system.
Despite congratulating the Department of Basic Education on its international qualitative bench-marking, the task team published a table showing how low the pass rates for different subjects would have been in 2011 if the actual (raw) marks in the exam had been used instead of changing — or “standardising” — them to conform with the results obtained in previous years, and adding a 5% “language compensation” mark for pupils not taught in their mother tongue.
Quoting research by local universities, the team found that matriculants were not well prepared for higher education despite good matric results.
Fewer than half of the 11 500 students tested across a range of universities were deemed proficient in academic literacy and only 7.5% were sufficiently numerate not to require extra support in mathematics. It also found that:
Only about one in four students in contact institutions (excluding Unisa) graduated in regulation time (three years for a three-year degree);
Only 35% of the total intake, and 48% of contact students, graduated within five years;
When allowance was made for students taking longer than five years to graduate, or returning to the system after dropping out, it estimated that some 55% of the intake would never graduate;
Access, success and completion rates continued to be racially skewed, with white completion rates being on average 50% higher than African rates; and
The net result of the disparities in access and success was that less than 5% of African and coloured youth were succeeding in any form of higher education.
Regarding the overwhelming focus of matriculants on obtaining university education, the team found that “this should be a major concern in a country aiming to participate more fully in the global knowledge economy”.
It called for a greater emphasis on vocational and technical training.