Government claims of an improvement in 2004’s matric mathematics and science performance came under scrutiny on Thursday, with calls for transparent statistics to be released.
”We believe it is essential to put all the cards on the table so that we deal with the reality and not perceptions of a ‘stabilised’ system,” Democratic Alliance education spokeswoman Helen Zille said.
The party questioned Education Minister Naledi Pandor’s statements on Wednesday that more pupils passed maths (22 860) and physical science (25,539) at the higher grade this year.
Zille said the department’s own figures showed that 23 412 pupils had passed higher grade maths last year — pointing to a downward rather than an upward trend as claimed.
According to the Business Day newspaper, last year’s physical science figure was also higher ‒- 26 067 pupils passed on the higher grade.
Education ministry spokesperson Tommy Makhode said there was no disparity. Wednesday’s figures did not include those for Mpumalanga — whose matric results were being withheld pending an investigation into alleged exam fraud.
A total of 38 162 full-time pupils wrote matric in that province.
”When Mpumalanga’s statistics are included the figures will definitely change,” he said. ”One cannot give a quantitative statistical analysis while the Mpumalanga results are outstanding.”
He denied assertions that the minister’s statement had been premature. Neither the national or provincial education departments could say how many Mpumalanga matrics wrote higher grade maths and science papers.
Said Zille: ”The difference may be accounted for by the withholding of the Mpumalanga results, but Minister Pandor made this claim without referring to the absence of the Mpumalanga results for maths and science at the higher grade”.
Makhode maintained the results indicated an improvement in maths and science performance and the quality of pupils produced by the schooling system.
Government efforts to boost these specific areas of study were clearly starting to bear fruit, he said.
The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA, however, expressed great concern about the quality of maths and science education.
Excluding Mpumalanga, 257 000 pupils wrote maths this year, of whom 148 000 passed. Last year 151 000 out of 258 000 candidates passed country-wide.
For science, 110 000 out of 148 000 passed, compared to last year’s 121 000 from 151 000, said Naptosa president Dave Balt.
”This is dismal. It is a tragedy,” he said, adding that the outstanding Mpumalanga figures were not expected to change the picture much.
He accused education authorities of being more worried about how many matrics passed each year than whether they passed with subjects pertinent to tertiary education and the labour market.
”The critical factor is the quality of our matrics, not the numbers,” Balt said. ”We need to produce quality matrics with good subjects, and none are more important than maths and science — the gateway subjects.”
The problem, he said, appeared to be that not enough teachers were being trained. Also, there was not enough investment in resources like science laboratories.
”I don’t think it is due to a lack of money. It is rather that there seems to be something seriously wrong with the emphasis,” Balt said.
He called for an urgent investigation into these issues.
Zille, in turn, asked the education department to release all statistics, subject by subject, for an analysis to be done of quality trends in the matric results.
She said this year’s results were released in a different format, raising the question ”whether a specific format approach was adopted to prevent certain comparisons and present the results in the best possible light”.
”The comparative format, to which we have become accustomed, may throw up some statistics that are less easy to explain away than those the minister included in her public announcement of the results”.
Complete transparency was very important, Zille added. ”If pass rates have declined in certain areas, we should face the problem, analyse it and work to overcome it.” – Sapa