\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"NM](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/c1d93_1968625997.jpg\")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
Ex-QDMS<\/p>\n
Last month 125 Grade 10 pupils at a school in Zululand took up their pens for the mid-year physical science exam paper. No one passed.<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
Last month 125 Grade 10 pupils at a school in Zululand took up their pens for the mid-year physical science exam paper. No one passed. <\/p>\n
Khanyanjalo Secondary School was just one of 11 schools in the area which recorded a 100 percent failure. <\/p>\n
It is a picture replicated across the province \u2013 pupils in their tens of thousands at more than 600 of KZN\u2019s poorest performing schools are unable to demonstrate an understanding of half a year of learning. <\/p>\n
Educationists have described the statistics as \u201cdismal\u201d, warning that it spells trouble for the matric class of 2014. <\/p>\n
But KZN Education Department spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said the Grade 12 June exam results were \u201cnoticeably better\u201d by comparison to their marks in March \u2013 proof that the department\u2019s matric intervention was working. <\/p>\n
Even so, figures obtained by The Mercury reveal that of the 17 632 Grade 10 pupils who wrote accounting, 11 026 (64 percent) failed; of 27 000 pupils who wrote maths, 20 600 (73 percent) failed; of the 31 191 pupils who wrote maths literacy, 19 141 (62 percent) failed; and of the 16 756 who attempted the physical science paper, 11 244 (67 percent) did not make the grade. <\/p>\n
Districts such as Amajuba (Newcastle), Umkhanyakude (Jozini), Uthukela (Ladysmith) and Umgungundlovu (Pietermaritzburg) fared worst. The Umlazi district (greater Durban) recorded the highest pass rate in three of the four subjects. <\/p>\n
Confronted with the data, Mahlambi said they were disappointing but the data had been generated as part of a provincial intervention to identify where the problems were. There would then be targeted intervention in the further education and training band (Grade 10 to Grade 12). <\/p>\n
Mahlambi explained that this year, schools which achieved less than 60 percent in the 2011 National Senior Certificate had not been allowed to set June exam papers. <\/p>\n
Instead, the department compiled the assessment, assuming that by the time the calendar turned to June, 50 percent of the curriculum would have been taught. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why we are now saying matric starts in Grade 10,\u201d Mahlambi said. <\/p>\n
Dr Edith Dempster, a senior lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal\u2019s School of Education, called the situation \u201cdesperately sad\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen the enthusiasm and eagerness to learn in children\u2019s faces. This should not be taken as reflective of the capabilities of these children,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Dempster was especially concerned about the maths marks because \u201cit is probably the most important gateway subject\u201d to many fields of study at university. <\/p>\n
She empathised with teachers struggling to cope with curriculum changes, but did not believe this was the cause of the problem. <\/p>\n
It had something to do with the number of unqualified teachers in the system. Dempster said she was struck by the number of schools with low enrolment numbers. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the schools are very small. It\u2019s worrying. How are they staffing them? Universities are not producing enough teachers. We don\u2019t know how many properly qualified teachers teach maths. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been calls from powerful voices to raise the pass mark. But if we did that, we\u2019d have a minuscule amount of pupils attaining that 50 percent,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Dempster pegged the chances of passing maths in Grade 12, for a pupil who had failed the subject in Grade 10, at 20 percent. <\/p>\n
An educational psychologist at the University of Pretoria, Professor Kobus Maree, agreed that the introduction of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (Caps) had not had any marked improvement. (Caps was rolled out in grades 1 to 3, and Grade 10 this year.) <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the old combination of: Are teachers teaching as well and professionally as they should? Are pupils studying? Are parents supportive? My guess is also that there isn\u2019t access to resources,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
It was a case of under-perfor-ming schools being staffed by unqualified teachers, he added. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are critical subjects. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor a developing country to reach a 6 percent growth rate will be determined by what happens in classrooms. This does not augur well for our future.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said he was \u201cdumbstruck\u201d as to why a significant amount of pupils had failed maths literacy. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see what teachers\u2019 grievances are. Let\u2019s make sure textbooks are available from day one. Why aren\u2019t we seeing Blade |Nzimande making it compulsory for graduates to do community service in rural and township areas? And what about the school managers?\u201d <\/p>\n
Good principals bought books themselves, photocopied material and borrowed from more affluent schools rather than waiting for doomsday to come, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe political will is there,\u201d and leaders were desperate to improve the situation. \u201cBut there\u2019s a huge misalignment between the top [the MEC and the head of department] and schools. We need to find out where the pipe is leaking,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Mahlambi did not dispute that having unqualified staff manning the blackboards was to blame \u2013 particularly in rural areas where recruiting, retaining and replacing star teachers remained tricky. <\/p>\n
He also cited ill-advised subject choices, poor school management, and lack of parent involvement as contributing factors. <\/p>\n
Mahlambi added that it was perhaps to the detriment of Grade 10s that schools focused all their efforts on their Grade 12s. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ex-QDMS Last month 125 Grade 10 pupils at a school in Zululand took up their pens for the mid-year physical science exam paper. No one passed. Last month 125 Grade 10 pupils at a school in Zululand took up their pens for the mid-year physical science exam paper. No one passed. Khanyanjalo Secondary School was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-13483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}