Faced with mounting pressure and financial incentives to improve matric results, government high schools with a history of a high failure rate are resorting to controversial measures to improve their averages.
One tactic such schools are using is so-called ‘gate-keeping” in Grade 11. Learners who performed poorly in Grade 11 are not promoted to Grade 12 – even when they achieve the 40% aggregate required to pass into the next grade. This approach guarantees the school of a smaller but stronger bunch of matric candidates and a much better chance of shaking off their status as ‘dysfunctional” – and the increased public and government pressure that goes with it.
Naledi Secondary in Soweto is one Gauteng school singled out for attention in the Education Action Zones because of a matric pass rate under 20%. A Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) strategy introduced in 2000, interventions at these schools were chiefly bureaucratic assistance, but also included incentives like salary bonuses for improved matric results for educators and principals.
On the face of it, Naledi is a dramatic success story: matric results improved from 19% to 70%. But the statistic not reflected in this result is the radical decline in the number of matric candidates at the school.
Kenny Mavatulane, deputy principal at Naledi, confirmed the school was adopting the controversial Grade 11 ‘gate-keeping” strategy. “One way or another we had to find a way to improve our matric results,” he says. ‘We have to make sure learners enrolling for matric are good material. If they are not ready, we can’t push them.”
Mavatulane says a meeting between teachers and parents was held regarding the matter, and ‘the parents gave us the go-ahead to implement the system”.
Lakaje Potesa is one of the learners at Naledi who obtained the required 40% for promotion into Grade 12 but was forced to repeat Grade 11.
‘This came as a surprise to me because my report showed I had obtained the required pass mark,” Potesa says. ‘I was very embarrassed. To be honest, it took me some time to come to terms with the fact that I was going to repeat the same class for another 12 months.”
Mxolisi Nxumalo from the national Department of Education’s (DoE) chief directorate for examination and assessment says, ‘The department is aware of the new pattern of retaining learners in Grade 11 to improve their matric results.” Nxumalo says holding back learners who deserve to proceed to another class is not in line with government policy.
He adds that the DoE is currently investigating the huge decline in the number of matric candidates generally. In 1998, for example, the total number of enrolments for full- and part-time candidates was 844 726. This year only 667 043 enrolled. This represents a drop of 177 683 candidates.
While certain factors like the exclusion of continuous repeaters and overage learners are thought to be responsible for some of the decline, there are lingering questions about more sinister causes for the drop in numbers.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has described the huge decline in matric enrolments as scandalous, particularly when factors like the population growth and the governmen’s stated commitment to equity and access to education should result in more learners writing their matric.
Sadtu representative Hassen Lorgat blamed the government for allowing the situation where learners’ rights are being compromised to improve matric results.
Meanwhile, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training has recommended that this trend be investigated. ‘We also recommended investigations into the effect of progression rates in the lower grades, especially in Grade 11, on candidate enrolment for the senior certificate,” says Rufus Poliah, director of the council.
DoE representative Molotwane Likhethe says the Minister of Education Kader Asmal has also expressed concern about the dramatic decline in matric enrolment at certain schools.
‘Schools should stop compromising learners in order to obtain better results,” Likhethe says. ‘Bad results are not the end of the world.”