PRIMARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION NEWS

Real matric pass rate in South Africa is 43.7%

By Own Correspondent January 6, 2016

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has questioned the pass rate of the matric class of 2015, as announced by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, on Tuesday.

The minister announced a pass rate of 70.7% down from 75.8% achieved in 2014, however the EFF’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, said that the real pass rate is 43.7%.

“What the minister does not tell the nation is that in reality her pass rate is actually 43.7%, if we take into consideration that in 2004 there were 1 303 016 learners who registered for Grade 1. Yet, only 801,688 of them sat for matric exams. It means more than 500,000 learners are lost and cannot be accounted for.

“This is much so this year than any other taken into consideration the policy of progressing the failing learners to sit for the NSC exam. This is a whole generation of people the country has condemned to precariousness,” Ndlozi said.

Motshekga said that if the “progressed learners” had not been added to the total, the pass rate would have been 74%. These were pupils who failed Grade 11 twice and were promoted to Grade 12 without meeting the passing criteria.

“The EFF will never celebrate that the total number of leaners who sat for exams, 65 671 were progressed leaners. This is not an achievement at all, because an efficient system that takes care of leaners should in any way not only take care of those who are progressed, but also the more than 500 000 that got lost from the system,” the EFF spokesperson said.

“The calculation of matric outcomes and pass rate should always tell the full story which must start from Grade 1 of enrolment to Grade 12. Not doing so gives a false picture of our performance as a country,” Ndlozi said.

Minister Motshekga said a total number of candidates who registered for the November 2015 NSC examinations was 799,306, comprising 667,925 full time candidates and 131 381 part time candidates.

“This is 110 thousand candidates more than those enrolled for the 2014 NSC examinations.”

The 70.7% pass rate represents 455,825 candidates who have passed the 2015 NSC Examinations, the largest in history.

“This represents an increase of 51,952 candidates from those who passed in 2014.  The national pass rate without progressed learners would have been 74.1%. Well done to the Class of 2015,” said Motshekga.

Increase in Bachelor passes

The minister also said there was an increase in the number of learners qualifying for admission to Bachelor degrees from 150,737 in 2014 to 166,263 in 2015.

The performance in Mathematics and Physical Science, which are gateway subjects, has also shown an increase in the number of passes, although the pass percentage in these subjects has decreased.

The number of learners passing Mathematics has increased from 120,523 in 2014 to 129,481 in 2015; while the number of learners passing Physical Science has increased from 103,348 in 2014 to 113 121 in 2015.

“In 2015 there were 3,711 more distinctions achieved by learners than in 2014.  In 2014, 157,913 distinctions were achieved, whereas in 2015 161,624 distinctions were achieved.

“In the 12 key subjects (including Mathematics, Physical Science, Accounting, among others) the total number of distinctions increased from 59,981 in 2014 to 63,348 in 2015,” said Minister Motshekga.

Western Cap top achiever

Western Cape became the overall top achiever with a pass rate of 84.7%, up from 82.2% in 2014, showing an improvement of 2.5%.  Western Cape had 53,721 candidates in total, out of which 22,739 are Bachelor passes.

The province was followed by Gauteng with 84.2%.

“We need to congratulate Gauteng for producing the largest number of Bachelor passes at 38,760.  Gauteng had 108,442 candidates in total.  Well done to MEC Lesufi and his team,” said the Minister.

The third on the list was Free State with 81.6%

Minister Motshekga said the department must pay particular attention to KZN, Limpopo and Eastern Cape if it wants to improve the overall NSC national picture.

“If we don’t do this, our basic education outputs and outcomes may not improve to the extent necessary,” said the Minister.

PRIMARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION NEWS

10 ways to improve South Africa’s education system

By News Service January 6, 2016

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced that 70.7% of students who wrote the 2015 National Senior Certificate examinations passed.

Many people stated that the matric pass rate should not be celebrated, though, as it represents a watered-down qualification which is not respected in the workplace.

Equal Education highlighted that a large percentage of students also drop out before they write the matric exams.

The organization said the cohort matric pass rate – the percentage of learners in grade 2 who pass matric 11 years later – is 42.2%.

South Africa has a dumbed down school system

Another critic of the current matric examinations is University of the Free State vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen.

In a recent Sunday Times column, he said South Africa’s disregard for competence is illustrated by the way government policies have dumbed down the school system since the 1990s.

“We created a watered-down mathematics stream for those who, we were told, could not do maths,” he said.

“We gave legitimacy (and a university-entrance point) to life orientation when, in the past, guidance (or the lack thereof) had no consequences.”

He said passing levels in school subjects are pegged at 30% and 40%, and that we created an exit level at Grade 9 because more than half the children who start Grade 1 do not make it past matric.

“We used to add marks to the grades of non-native speakers writing in English. More than one study has pointed to the inflation of grades, no doubt to make the national pass percentage look good.”

How to improve the education system

Jansen provided 10 ways to improve the South African education system in a Facebook post titled: Ten things I would do first if I were your Minister of Schools

1. Stop the circus: no more announcement of matric results. I would instead announce the results of our investment in pre-school education programmes – how well prepared are our pre-schoolers for formal education?
2. Fire all the deployed officials in provinces and districts. Officials welcome to re-apply on the basis of proven competence – party loyalties will be irrelevant.
3. Replace fired officials with coaches and mentors (not inspectors) for every teacher and principal who work alongside staff as colleagues. These coaches and mentors must have a track record of running successful schools or achieving high results in the subjects for which they are responsible.
4. Appoint an ombudsperson for every SGB to root out corruption in teacher and head appointments.
5. Ensure every child has a textbook in every subject within three months, or somebody loses his job.
6. Abolish the ANAs with immediate effect and assess every three years in the most vulnerable schools only.
7. Increase the salaries of teachers on one criterion only – that the children in the poorest schools show steady increases in achievement scores.
8. No teacher will be hired with less than a Master’s degree in teaching by 2018 and this status will be reflected in salary scales highly competitive with the private sector.
9. Teachers will show up in every class every day and teach. Two strikes (misses) and you’re out unless there is a certified medical certificate which can be cross-checked for dishonesty.
10. Teachers given three months off every three years to improve their professional qualifications.

PRIMARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION NEWS

New education system on the cards for SA: report

By News Service January 10, 2016

 

The City Press has reported that South Africa’s state schooling system faces a shake-up, where students will be divided into three tiers based on their ability.

According to the report, a scholar’s aptitude will be used to place them into one of three streams:academic, technical occupational,or technical vocational.

The technical occupational stream is aimed at producing students who can leave matric and immediately enter the workplace, with skills like spray painting, woodwork, and hairdressing.

The academic stream will resemble the current schooling system, with a focus on academic studies.

The technical vocational stream will include subjects like engineering and technical drawing, and will be aimed at students who want to study trades like boiler making and fitting and turning after school.

The new schooling system will be developed this year, and will be piloted in 58 schools in 2017.

Similar to DA’s schooling plans

The new plan is similar to what the DA proposed in its educational and values charters.

The DA said every child under a DA government would have the opportunity and proper career guidance to develop their potential.

The DA policy states that learners with academic interests and abilities would be catered for intop-quality academic schools.

“Well-equipped technical schools would teach our future artisans and engineers, andvocational schools would provide skills and broader opportunities to learners in the calling of their choice,” said the DA.

PRIMARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION NEWS

SA education a ‘national catastrophe’: report

By Staff WriterJanuary 24, 2016

 

Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga used the terms “crisis” and “national catastrophe” in describing aspects of the South African education system.

This is according to a report by the City Press, following one of the lowest matric pass rates in recent years, which saw over 213,500 pupils fail their final year.

Speaking at a three-day education lekgotla this week, Motshekga spoke out against the existence of two education systems in the country – one where there is high performance with pockets of excellence; and the other deprived of resources with pockets of disaster.

“When we ushered in the new South Africa in 1994, we vowed to create a single national education system that delivers quality education for all,” she said.

Notably, the minister was referring to the Limpopo textbook disaster, in which her department failed to heed a Supreme Court order to deliver textbooks to pupils for the year.

According to the City Press, to help fix the education system in crisis the ministers called for:

• The immediate dismissal of under-performing principals and district directors
• Action against teachers in “former African schools” which are only teaching for 3.5 hours a day (as opposed to the 6.5 hours seen in former model C schools)
• Compliance to the Supreme Court ruling that textbooks be delivered at the start of the academic year

“If 25% (of pupils) fail, we must have sleepless nights…this is akin to a national crisis,” Motshekga said.

You can read the full report in the City Press for 24 January 2016.

PRIMARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION NEWS

SA schools hand defaulting parents over to debt collectors

By Staff WriterJanuary 24, 2016

 

Debt ridden high schools in South Africa are increasingly handing over parents who default on school fees, to debt collectors.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, rising applications for exemptions and bad debt has left public schools R2.8 billion in the red.

The Sunday Times cited the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools, which represents 1,935 schools.

Federation chief executive Paul Colditz told the Sunday paper that applications for fee exemptions from parents were expected to increase “given the state of the economy”.

Schools that grant exemptions said that the amount granted to them by the provincial education departments does not even begin to cover their budget.

A school in the Western Cape school that granted almost R2.8 million in fee exemptions in 2014, said it received only R78,000 from the provincial education department last year.

Brett Bentley, MD of a credit-control company said that the more wealthy schools had debt levels of around 10%, while the poorer schools faced debts as high as 50%.

As a result, schools were increasingly having to  hand the names of defaulting parents to debt collectors. These included a top Johannesburg girls’ school, which the Times said was owed R865,159 for last year and about R6-million for previous years, excluding 2015.

It handed the names of 34 cases to debt collectors.

Another high school in Pietermaritzburg told the paper that it had written off approximately R1 million in unpaid fees as bad debt in 2015, and handed over the names of 88 parents to debt collectors.

You can read the full report in the Sunday Times for 24 January 2016.

SOUTH AFRICAN NEWS

M-Net hits back hard at Gareth Cliff

M-Net on Friday night filed an answering affidavit in the TV divorce between the broadcaster and former Idols judge, Gareth Cliff.

By News24 Wire - January 22, 2016 

M-Net on Friday night filed an answering affidavit in the TV divorce between the broadcaster and former Idols judge, Gareth Cliff. Cliff filed an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court asking that he be reinstated as a judge on the show.

Should a judge not rule in his favour, a second part of the application asks thatIdols, which is due to begin its audition phase on 30 January, be halted.

M-Net has finally responded, saying it can’t and won’t delay the upcoming start of the 12th season’s auditions, and that it’s seeking the immediate dismissal of Cliff’s urgent court application, with costs.

M-Net has revealed that it told Cliff that he could have said that he decided to step away from Idols, thereby preserving his, M-Net and Idols’ dignity and image. Cliff declined and M-Net issued a statement to the media announcing its decision.

“In the interest of preserving an amicable relationship with him, he was offered the opportunity to issue a joint statement with M-Net in order to voluntarily step down from the show, which he declined,” says M-Net.

The broadcaster says it can’t and won’t delay the start of Idols since it will have “far-reaching financial and reputational consequences for M-Net and [SIC] Entertainment should the 2016 auditions be stopped”.

“Venues and crew have already been booked and all freelance contractors and crew members would lose out on their income. Any changes to the filming schedule would also have a detrimental impact on the Idols contestants themselves, many of whom are students, who have already made arrangements to participate in the scheduled auditions”.

M-Net is hitting back at Cliff’s claims of defamation, saying the only damage to his reputation was the damage he did himself.

“Any harm done to Gareth Cliff’s reputation is a direct result of his own actions and not as a result of M-Net’s decision to exclude him from the Idols judging panel”.

“Gareth Cliff chose to enter the fray in the midst of an acrimonious public discussion about race relations and made statements which he admits were highly insensitive and ill-advised,” says M-Net.

M-Net says it got rid of Cliff because as a commercial TV broadcaster “M-Net did not wish to participate in fueling further racially based divisions in the country.”

Cliff got the axe after commenting on a racist social media post by estate agent, Penny Sparrow. The matter is set to be heard in court on 26 January. Part of the application includes the possibility of a R25m lawsuit against M-Net. This would only be launched should he not be reinstated as a judge on the show.

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