An unprecedented agreement among tertiary institutions will see all higher education institutions implement a single entrance exam by 2008.
This could soon clear up widespread confusion about what entry requirements school leavers need for higher education. It should also raise the quality of tertiary graduates, and in turn enable higher education to address South Africa’s dire skills shortages far more effectively than it now does.
For decades, universities and technikons have had wildly differing entry requirements. And in recent years, the declining standard of the matric exam — despite the hugely increased pass rate (73% last year) — as well as academic and public scepticism about the value of a matric certificate, has made some institutions introduce additional forms of entry testing.
Now the South African Universities Vice-Chancellors Association (Sauvca) has announced that all tertiary institutions have agreed upon national benchmark tests concerning admission requirements to higher education. The association said last week: ”Applicants, parents, schools, colleges and the public at large will be very clear on the expected entry levels to higher education institutions.”
Also, tertiary institutions will be ”clear on the entry-level competencies of their students and what needs to be entailed in ‘responsive’ curriculum programmes”, Sauvca said. Schools will receive ”useful feedback on the critical competencies students need to develop in order successfully to engage with higher education study”.
The agreement, reached with the participation of the Committee of Technikon Principals (CTP), is intended to be up and running by the end of 2008 — the year in which the new further education and training certificate (FETC) will replace the current senior certificate (the matric exam). Between now and then, ”academic literacy, numeracy and mathematical tests” will be developed among all
institutions, and a minimum benchmark for entry levels will be set.
Current graduation rates are disastrous — whether measured by numbers of graduates or by the fields in which students qualify. There is widespread agreement that this is seriously damaging individuals’ prospects, as well as the country’s skills development programme and its economic health.
Last year’s matric pass rate of a highest-ever 73% did little to conceal a damagingly low university-entrance level of passes at 18%. This exposed yet again the weakness of communication between the school sector and higher education.
It has been repeatedly reported that schools have been under massive official pressure to pass more pupils. This some have done by forcing pupils to write matric subjects at standard grade (which reduces or eliminates their chances of entering higher education); holding back pupils from grade 12 whom schools feel might fail matric or preventing pupils who have failed from rewriting; and discouraging them from choosing (in grade 10) perceived ”difficult” subjects.
However, tertiary institutions are also under pressure — especially to increase the numbers of graduates in science, maths and technology fields. But numerous academics have been asking where these tertiary students are supposed to be found while the school system is not producing them.
About two-thirds of students who enter higher education come directly from schools. The other third consists of those who have been out of formal education for a period, foreigners and a few from FET colleges (the former vocational and training colleges, of which there are now 50 public ones).
Last year 457 147 full-time pupils wrote matric; 332 492 of them passed — but only 18% (59 849) were university-entrance passes. The South African Chamber of Commerce last year reported that only 5% of 2002’s grade 12s found employment in the formal sector — a position that educationists said this month has probably not improved significantly.
Piyushi Kotecha of Sauvca said: ”National benchmark tests will gauge learner competencies so that institutions can better support and advise students. It will enable higher education to ascertain early on the extent to which the FETC [which will replace the matric exam in 2008] is a reliable predictor of academic success.
”This exercise will therefore be a transparent standard that will ensure learners, teachers, parents and higher education know what is expected when students enter the system. [It] will allow for greater dialogue between the schooling and higher education sectors.”