It’s a matter of official record: matric exams are becoming easier. This was confirmed last week by Peliwe Lolwane, CEO of Umalusi, the independent body tasked with certifying the matric exams. A report released on September 21 on Umalusi’s research into standards of the matric exams stated that ”higher pass rates are not a sign of examinations becoming easier”.
However, when approached with follow-up questions by the Mail & Guardian’s sister publication, The Teacher, Lolwane conceded: ”We are saying the problem is that the exam has got easier.” She also said that, while higher grade exams have maintained their standard, ”on the balance, the standard grade exams have got easier”. Last year 70% of candidates wrote at the standard grade.
Or is it official? Absolutely not, if you ask Department of Education Director General Thami Mseleku. He stressed that Umalusi’s research was limited to six out of a possible 124 subject-papers, and that ”you cannot therefore, on the basis of this, conclude that the matric exams are getting easier”.
Mseleku said ”the report does say that some subjects were more difficult while others were easier. This includes both standard and higher grade. The high rate of [candidates writing] standard grade does not in anyway suggest the exams are getting any easier.”
But Umalusi’s report does acknowledge a ”declining level of conceptual demand in examination papers”.
Sandile Ndaba from Umalusi said conceptual demands refer to questions that require ”higher order thinking skills like evaluation, synthesis, analysis and application”, rather than easier comprehension and recall skills.
The six subjects looked at in Umalusi’s research were English first language, English second language, biology, history, mathematics and physical science. Exam papers and marking procedures were compared with the matric exams of 1992 (when there were still 18 different education departments); 1999 (with the lowest pass rate in the past 12 years); and last year (when the pass rate peaked at 73%).
A key factor accounting for the remarkable year-on-year improvement of the pass rate, noted the report, was the increasing number of matric candidates who write the easier standard grade. Only 30% of candidates wrote the higher grade exams, of which a mere 18,2% passed. The number of candidates who passed with university endorsements has remained static, hovering between 15% and 16%.
Lolwane described this trend of increasing numbers of standard grade candidates as a cause for ”national concern” because it diminishes ”the pool from which higher education can draw qualifying learners”.
This is the first official admission that it has become easier to pass matric, at least since 1992, said Jonathan Jansen, dean of education at the University of Pretoria. It confirms reports in the M&G earlier this year that the improved pass rate of 73% was more a case of political grandstanding than an indication of a healthy education system.
Ken Hall, who heads the South African Chamber of Business’ education and training committee, said: ”We need to improve our quality of matric irrespective of whether it compares well with previous results. We are concerned that we are still getting learners who battle with basic numeracy and therefore are not adequately prepared for the world of work.”
Dingaan Ngobeni, from the curriculum development section of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union, said one reason why so many learners opt for standard grade is because of the ”emphasis put on the exit point [from the school system], which puts a lot of pressure on educators, the majority of whom work at under-resourced schools and also do not get support from district offices. As a result, educators will opt for the easier types of questions, which do not enhance the learners’ intellectual depth.”
Mathula Mphande, director of communications for the education department, said one of the reasons for the increasing numbers of standard grade candidates is the pressure on schools to show an improvement in their pass rates. — The Teacher
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