Pass rate up amid concerns on maths, science

THE CLASS of 2011 have upped the stakes. This year’s matrics achieved a 70.2 percent pass rate – and it’s up on 2010’s 67.8 percent.

The Western Cape, with a 82.9 percent pass from the previous year’s 76.8 percent, was the bestperforming province, according to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.

Gauteng, the top performer in 2010, dropped back to second, marginally behind the Western Cape at 81.1 percent – a slight improvement from its 78.6 percent in 2010.

The most-improved province was Mpumalanga, with 68.4 percent, up from 2010’s 56.8 percent.

The worst-performing province was the Eastern Cape with 58.1 percent – a slight decrease from 58.3 percent in 2010.

The department’s directorgeneral, Bobby Soobrayan, said they remained concerned at the number of pupils who dropped out of school before reaching matric.

He revealed that when last

However, of those candidates, just more than 600 000 sat for matric exams.

Pass rates for maths and physical science were also a concern.

Soobrayan said the maths pass rate, which was 47.4 percent in 2010, had now fallen to 46.3 percent.

He attributed this, among other things, to teachers unable to teach “challenging topics” in the subject and pupils who had not grasped the basics from the lower grades.

The pass rate in physical science increased from 47.8 percent in 2010 to 53.4 percent.

The economics pass rate dropped from 75.2 percent in 2010 to 64 percent – the biggest dip across all subjects. Soobrayan said a lack of language skills and the fact that questions were based on contemporary economic issues had played a major role.

Of the 30 percent of pupils who had failed, Motshekga said “the failure rate is still high by any standard – the (Southern African Development Community) failure rate is 10 percent”.