Leanne Jansen
Leanne.Jansen@inl.co.za
Should the pass mark for maths and science be raised from its current 30 percent to 50 percent, four out of five Grade 12 pupils would fail those subjects.
That was according to the South African Institute of Race Relations, which released more of the findings from its 2012 country survey, an annual research publication, yesterday.
Researcher Jonathan Snyman said the data revealed that despite increases in the number of pupils who attained between 50 percent and 69 percent, half of the Grade 12 pupils who had written maths and science since the introduction of the National Senior Certificate in 2008 were unable to manage 30 percent.
The pass mark threshold has been fiercely debated for some time.
Consensus
Shortly before the ANC’s elective conference in Mangaung last year, KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Senzo Mchunu told The Mercury that 30 percent was “a failure mark”.
Last November, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga tasked a committee with investigating the standard of the National Senior Certificate.
There seems to be consensus among education stakeholders, including the government, NGOs, academics, tea- cher unions and parent bodies, that the true test of the success of the country’s education system is how well pupils pass, rather than simply how many of them pass.
Snyman’s analysis is based on data supplied by Motshekga’s department, as a breakdown of the 2012 matric results was not available at the time that the institute’s survey went to print.
In the National Diagnostic Report on Learner Performance for last year, released earlier this month, Motshekga acknowledged that the quality of passes in “key subjects” like maths, physical sciences, accounting, life sciences, economics, geography and history, remained a concern.
“A number of these subjects are still registering pass rates below 50 percent… Quality must be the focus in 2013,” Motshekga said.
According to figures in the diagnostic report, while 5 percent more pupils scored 40 percent and higher for maths last year than in 2011, only 1.6 percent more performed at a range between 50 percent and 59 percent. In the physical sciences there was also an improvement in the number of pupils getting 40 percent and more.
“The majority of pupils are still failing to grasp core concepts early and, as a result, end up struggling in these subjects throughout their schooling careers. South Africa is also faced with a dearth of qualified maths and science teachers, and this shortage is particularly acute in poorer schools,” Snyman said.
He added that the importance placed on passing maths and science well was necessary, not only because it allowed pupils to study disciplines such as engineering and medicine, but also because maths and science were universal languages which served as a good indicator of how well the South African education system was faring compared with the rest of the world.
