Cape Town - “Madness” was how some principals have described a decision by the Council of Education Ministers to allow pupils who had been pushed through to Grade 12, without passing Grade 11, to complete matric in modules over two years.
On Friday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the council had decided to allow pupils who had been progressed to Grade 12 but who were not coping – despite remedial attention – to “modulate their matric”.
“Those who had not performed well in the June and September trial exams will be offered the option to focus only on the subjects they are ready to write this year and focus on the remaining subjects in 2016 to ensure that they get the support and content knowledge required to allow them to attain a matric certificate.”
The council consists of the minister, her deputy and the nine education MECs.
“Provinces have committed to engage with these learners as well as their parents to inform them of this decision. Parents and learners will be advised based on the performance of learners in the trial examinations on the way forward,” Motshekga said.
The Council also agreed to improve the progression policy and look at setting specific requirements for the progression of pupils. Some of the ideas include pupils having to pass the school’s language of learning and teaching, and have their attendance records taken into account.
The progression policy has drawn strong criticism from principals and teachers, and earlier this month Education MEC Debbie Schäfer met with Motshekga to discuss these concerns.
More than 5 000 Western Cape pupils who had not passed Grade 11 at the end of last year were progressed to Grade 12.
In July, the governing body and staff of Spine Road High School in Mitchells Plain expressed their concerns in a letter to the Cape Argus. “The progressing of pupils who fail to make the required criteria to pass makes a mockery of the standards that we wish to entrench in our schools,” the letter stated.
It added that while the school had requested support from its circuit manager, it had not received assistance.
“We, the governing body and staff of Spine Road High School, wish to inform the department that for 2015 we will not allow any pupil at our school to progress if they do not meet the department's criteria.”
On Monday the school’s principal, Riyaadh Najaar, who was speaking in his capacity as chairman of the Progressive Principals’ Association, said the plan was “utter madness”.
He questioned how teachers would be able to support the pupils over two years and, in the second year, deal with the new cohort of matric pupils, which would also include progressed pupils needing extra support.
“What hasn’t been indicated is if these progressed learners are going to be at the school full-time or are they going to be part-time learners. We can’t accept this kind of solution. The solution is simple: you should progress once you have made the requirements.”
South Peninsula High School principal Brian Isaacs, who was threatened with disciplinary action in 2014 after his school refused to let a pupil progress to Grade 12, said schools were not offered support to deal with such cases.
“What is happening now is that education authorities are skirting the issue. What needs to happen is that we need to change the regulation. It is debasing education. We are with Spine Road in that we will no longer progress students.”
Schäfer said the proposals that were discussed at the Council’s meeting were “just a first step, as the policy as a whole is problematic, not just in the FET phase (Grades 10 to 12)”.
“The details have not been entirely worked out yet, but I believe that it will be along the lines that they could write the other subjects next year, maybe when the supplementary exams are written or in June. It can be a huge benefit to learners in that, if they are allowed to split their exams into more manageable modules, it would hopefully make it more manageable for them and will assist in reducing the huge stress on them that currently exists. It will also hopefully provide them with a better chance of passing.”
She said schools were expected to comply with policy and regulations.
“We trust that our officials will discuss any proposed deviation with schools in order to reach a common understanding. It appears to be common cause that this policy and regulations have had some undesired effects which must be dealt with and we can hopefully do so in a constructive and collaborative manner.”
The Department of Basic Education had not provided any further details at the time of going to print.
Cape Argus