Durban - In the future, Grade 12 pupils who are struggling to cope could be allowed to write their final exams over two years.
In the Government Gazette of June 3, the Department of Basic Education proposed a policy amendment to this effect and called for public comment. The proposed amendment would allow for progressed pupils - who did not meet promotion requirements in Grade 10 or 11 and were subsequently “pushed through” to Grade 12 - to write some of their final exams at the end of the year and the rest the following June.
Basic Education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said if the amendment went ahead, pupils could start to choose the “multiple examination option” as early as this year. Decisions about which exams the pupils would write and when would be made by the pupils themselves, together with their parents or guardians, Mahlangu said.
A pilot study was carried out last year.
“We noted that most of them (the progressed pupils) fail if they write all the subjects at the same time.”
The aim of the proposed policy change was to reduce the drop-out rate and ensure that every person entering the education system finished with a matric certificate, Mahlangu explained.
“We want everybody to exit the school system with a pass.”
At the beginning of the year, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said the department had established a stringent set of criteria that would have to be met before pupils could be progressed within the Grade 10 to 12 or FET (Further Education and Training) band.
This was after last year saw 65 671 progressed pupils - the largest number ever - register for the national senior certificate exams. Only 22 060, or 37.6% of them, passed. This contributed to the disappointing overall pass rate - which at 70.7%, was a sharp drop from previous years.
In addition to proposing the “multiple examination option” the department is now also proposing policy be amended to incorporate these criteria, which include: a pass rate of a minimum of four subjects; the meeting of the school-based assessment requirements for all subjects; regular school attendance.
Speaking on the “multiple examination option”, Professor Wayne Hugo, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s school of education and development, called it “the first step in a revolution in the way in which assessments are done” .
He said internationally there was already a move towards digitalised assessments which could be carried out at any time and the results of which could be made available almost instantly.
And, he said, when it came to working-class and poorer pupils, one of the keys to improving their performances was giving them more time.
There were, however, logistical issues, Hugo said.
The president of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa, Basil Manuel, agreed.
“We don’t have an issue with it, but we don’t see how it is practically implementable,” he said.
Pupils would be offered the guidance and supervision they needed in the first year, but not in the second as there would be no space for them at their schools. Naptosa did, however, support moves to make progression a more stringent process.
Public comment on the proposal closes towards the end of the month.
For more information on the issue, visit the department’s website at www.education.gov.za.
The Mercury