January in South Africa is marked by the publication of matric results - the National Senior Certificate examinations written towards the end of Grade 12 in October and November of the previous year.
The official pass rate for 2022, released on 19 January this year, was 80,1%.
Two days later Zoubair Ayoob, news editor of Independent on Saturday, published a scathing review, “Matric: no reason to celebrate”.
He concluded: “It is not the number of passes that should concern Motshekga, but the quality of those passes, and the source of the quality passes. The emphasis needs to shift from getting pupils into tertiary education to ensuring they leave school with skills that make them instantly employable, or able to earn a living for themselves.”
Matric pass rates: Unpacking the numbers
What were the numbers behind this story?
Back in 2011, about 1,177,089 children had entered Grade 1. By 2021 — Grade 11 — this number had fallen to 954,069. But by the time this cohort came to write their National Senior Certificate exams, at the end of Grade 12, there were only 775,630 candidates.
What had happened to the 178,493 learners who had fallen off between Grade 11 and Grade 12, almost 19% of the cohort?
Zoubair Ayoob again: “We are expected to be fooled by the odd shining star who emerges from rural and township schools (and all credit to them for achieving in spite of their circumstances), but research will likely show that the majority of schools producing good results are Model Cs, with the regular public education system limping along. Instead of the annual emphasis on matric results, the government should emphasise improving the poorest schools and amend the curriculum if it is serious about the redemption of our nation and its goals.’’
So in reality, the percentage of those who entered Grade 1 in 2011 and passed their matric in 2022 was less than 53% rather than the official pass rate of 80.1%.
High fees serve as a filter on admissions
The only schools in South Africa that may credibly claim 100% Matric pass rate are high fee private schools and, for 2022, only eight did (one school for boys, and seven for girls).
But, with the exception of learners who have won scholarships on merit, high school fees serve as a filter on admissions, ensuring that only the best prepared applicants from financially privileged households get in. While their achievements are laudable and significant, matriculants from these schools are unrepresentative of the large majority in the state school system.
Chasing the 100% matric pass rate leads to questionable practices
It follows that state schools that yearn for the holy grail of a 100% matric pass rate are chasing a mirage. This delusion is far from harmless.
Writing for the Mail and Guardian in December 2021, Jackie Cook, Chief Operating Officer at Teneo Online High School, lifted the lid on some pretty dubious practices. Schools use Grade 10 and 11 results to identify learners who are unlikely to pass their matric results, and weed them out: “characteristically, “high risk” learners are identified, and their parents are asked to find an alternative place for them to write their final exams – as ‘private candidates’ … There are also reports of learners being ‘failed’ in Grade 11 and encouraged to move schools, informed that if they move, their transcript will state that they in fact passed Grade 11”, says Cook.
Alternative ways of measuring learner achievement
The practices described above are ethically questionable, to say the least. Categorising vulnerable learners as “not fit for purpose”, and sacrificing them to enhance the reputation of a school against a dodgy criterion of quality, flies in the face of one of the fundamental principles of our Constitution — the right of equality of access and opportunity in education.
This is why, at UCT Online High School, we are developing alternative ways of measuring and benchmarking learner achievement. We are very happy to be able to accommodate a diverse learner community from various parts of South Africa and beyond. In this we have to think of benchmarks and measurement tools that acknowledge the disparities that present in education and the impact that has had on learners joining our school, as well as to objectively and critically assess performance of our school in relation to our diverse community.
The most promising of these tools is “learning gain”, which is defined as “the improvement in knowledge, skills, work- readiness and personal development demonstrated by students at two points in time”.
Learning gain can be measured over a period of time by using various attainment data points, including assessments, standardised tests and examinations. It is both a powerful and demanding measure of attainment and a valuable diagnostic tool that uses data to identify specific areas for improvement at an appropriate granularity of detail. It is also an apt measure of individual performance, allowing each learner to see where they are moving forward along their individual path, subject by subject.
Schooling in South Africa faces huge challenges, requiring focussed attention, innovation and the very best use of all available resources. The illusion of the 100% matric pass rate is a waste of time that is not in the interests of the thousands of children who, every year, are failing to get the education that they deserve.
* Banele Lukhele is the Executive Head of School at UCT Online High School.