Leanne Jansen
DURBAN: In two or three years, a matric certificate will be more difficult to earn.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and her provincial education MECs have agreed that the much-maligned matric pass requirements must be raised, her department said yesterday.
The reform was a recommendation of a ministerial task team appointed to evaluate the National Senior Certificate.
The decision follows the raising of the pass requirements for grades 7, 8 and 9 this year, and was taken at a meeting on Monday.
A statement on the resolutions explained that a change in the matric pass requirements must occur incrementally.
Currently, to obtain a matric certificate, pupils must pass six of their seven subjects, three with at least 40 percent and the others with at least 30 percent.
Basic Education Department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga could not say how the pass requirement would be adjusted, saying this was yet to be decided. The changes to the pass requirement could come into effect in two to three years.
The department is likely to tread carefully in light of the sharp increase in the failure rate in grades 7, 8 and 9 this year as a consequence of the raised pass requirements in those grades.
The task team recommended, among others:
lThat there be a greater degree of distinction between the different levels of matric passes (whether a pupil obtains only a basic matric certificate, or qualifies for higher certificate study, a diploma or bachelor’s studies).
lMaking it tougher for a pupil to pass well enough to qualify for university study.
lDoing away with life orientation.
lUpping the pass mark in the language of teaching and learning (which is English for 80 percent of SA schools).
The reaction of teacher unions was not wholly positive, as they questioned whether quality education was represented by a raised matric pass requirement.
Mhlanga said that while this was a valid point, the school curriculum could not be strengthened without raising the benchmark of the assessment tool.