The remarkable improvement in the matric exam pass rate over the past few years is largely due to increased numbers of learners writing the standard grade exams, and because these exams are becoming easier.
This is according to Umalusi, the independent body charged with certifying the matric exams. A recent research exercise, intended to ‘evaluate whether the public perceptions that standards were dropping were realâ€, saw Umalusi looking into exam papers and marking procedures from the matric exams of 1992 (when there were still 18 different education departments); 1999 (with the lowest pass rate in the last 12 years) and 2003, where the pass rate peaked at 73%.
While stressing that the standards of higher-grade exams were being maintained, Umalusi CEO Peliwe Lolwane concedes that the finding of a ‘declining level of conceptual demand of many standard grade examination papers†amounts to diminishing standards.
Sandile Ndaba from Umalusi says that conceptual demands refer to questions that require ‘higher-order thinking skills like evaluation, synthesis, analysis and applicationâ€, rather than easier comprehension and recall skills.
Coupled with the increasing number of matric candidates opting for the easier standard grade, the result is the kind of improvement in pass rates that saw a record 73% of candidates pass in 2003. Only 30% of candidates wrote higher grade exams, of which a mere 18,2% passed. The number of candidates who passed with university endorsements has remained static.
Lolwane describes 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 learnersâ€.
Dingaan Ngobeni from the curriculum-development section of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union says one reason why so many learners opt for the standard-grade option 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.â€
Mathula Mphande, director of communications for the Department of Education (DoE), says reasons for the increasing numbers of standard-grade candidates are that ‘in some cases they [the learners] are advised by their teachers to choose standard grade, and sometimes they choose it themselves because they consider it to be easierâ€. Mphande also concedes that the pressure on schools to show an improvement in their pass rates also accounts for this trend.
But DoE director general Thami Mseleku dismisses the suggestion that the matric exams are getting easier. He says 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 easierâ€.
Meantime, Mseleku confirms that the DoE intends scrapping the current distinction between higher and standard grade in the matric exams in 2006 when the new curriculum for Grade 12 will be introduced. The reason for this, says Mseleku, is that ‘this [the higher/standard grade distinction] is not based on any educational senseâ€.
Helen Zille, the Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson on education, points out two major risks of scrapping the higher/standard grade exams: ‘If the examination is of a high standard required by tertiary institutions, a large number of students who could have passed standard grade, are almost certain to fail. If the examination is designed to maintain the current higher pass rates, its standard will have to drop from the current level of the higher grade, resulting in a serious loss of credibility and value of the senior certificate examination.â€
— Mseleku failed to provide his response to Zille’s view before the Teacher went to print.
Matric exam research:
Other findings of the recent Umalusi research into the standards of the matric exam include:
Areas of concern:
– English second-language candidates, who continue to be disadvantaged despite the practise of compensating these candidates by 5%. Umalusi notes that ‘the competency levels of the compensation candidates in the second language have not improved over the last seven years, since they are achieving lower results than their peers in other subjectsâ€.
– The length and predictability of some of the question papers.
– The quality of examination setting, marking and moderating.
– The collection, processing and archiving of data about all aspects of the Senior Certificate process [by the Department of Education].
Areas of improvement:
– The reduction of irregularities in the administration of the exams, with ‘evidence of provincial capability to execute and manage this huge examination efficientlyâ€.
– The quality of the presentation of the exam papers, including layout and language accessibility.
– A consistent level of content coverage, and an improvement in subjects like physics and history of the level of challenge in the higher grade question papers.