Democratic Alliance (DA) congratulated matriculants, although it said teachers should not place emphasis on the pass rate over quality education.
In a statement on Tuesday DA spokesperson Willem Doman said: ”The DA is encouraged that this years exams were conducted with greater integrity and teaching departments and school heads deserve praise for all the steps they took to achieve this.
”The massive improvement in the pass rates in the Eastern Cape and Free State within one year (are) however cause for some suspicion. In line with what the DA suggested, the special attention given to schools with pass rates lower than 20% has borne fruit.
”Although we are pleased with the continuation in improvement in pass rates, we should not place overwhelming emphasis on the pass rate, but we should rather focus on quality.”
Doman said the DA was concerned that the number of pupils writing matric had fallen since 1998.
”(This) indicates that schools are being forced to keep learners in grades 10 and 11 in order to ensure a better pass rate. This not only inflates the pass rate, but leads to a bottleneck which gets more difficult every year for the school system to handle,” he said.
Doman was also concerned that only between 15% to 20% of matrics achieved a university exemption.
”South Africa has a great shortage of graduates in fields including science, finance and management. Institutions of higher education complain that growing numbers of students are not up to the mark. From now on the quality of pass marks will have to receive a far greater emphasis,” said Doman.
”The planned further education curriculum from 2006 will have to make provision for a lot more learners moving in the direction of a technical education,” he said.
”At the moment too many matrics receive a certificate which is too academically inclined, which they will not use and which the economy does not demand.”
Doman said next year the DA was going to launch a campaign to encourage greater openness in the exam moderation process.
”Learners, parents, businesses and trade unions and the wider community have a right to know the criteria for marking. Openness will help allow the pass rate to be properly judged and will make it less controversial,” he said.
”Although the ANC’s transformation policy brought greater access to education for learners, its now necessary that there is a transformation to quality education being made available to more than just a small percentage of learners,” said Doman.
Doman said matrics ”can be proud of their achievements. Thousands of children had to study under extremely difficult circumstances which included literally working by candlelight.” – Sapa