Cape Town - While most matrics will this evening celebrate the end of their school careers, others will be anxious ahead of the release of the results of the National Senior Certificate exams.
National Teachers’ Union deputy president Allen Thompson said they had high expectations for this year’s results.
He said they should be able to maintain or improve in 2018. “We are hopeful that the province is going to do well. Too little is being done to deal with issues faced by the education system. Teachers are confronted with overcrowded classes, which can be stressful. Schools lack resources, while security issues saw a decrease in extra classes because teachers and pupils felt unsafe after many crimes took place in schools,” Thompson said.
South Africa’s private schools registered a 98.82% pass compared with last year’s 98.92%, with 89.51% passing with an entrance to a Bachelor’s course.
National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA executive director Basil Manuel said: “We certainly think we are going to improve this year because we had a stable period. As teachers, we have a dual purpose which is to improve results and the quality so I think it is also important that we push quality over quantity.”
Megan Sonnenberg, spokesperson for Christel House SA in Ottery, a non-profit school that serves severely underprivileged children from the Cape Flats, said the school had boasted a 100% matric pass rate since inception. “We are hopeful for great results once again,” she added.
ANC deputy chief whip and spokesperson on education Khalid Sayed said their latest annual report indicated that there was a higher repeater rate in the Grade 11 of 2018, which meant learners were not passing into Grade 12 for 2019.
Sayed said there was no compelling evidence that the downward trend over the last two years would be reversed, especially as there had been a rise in the number of schools with a pass rate of under 60% from 19% in 2016 to 33% in 2017 and 43% in 2018.
“That kind of quality erosion is serious and does not lay the foundation for a sudden turnaround.”
He said that raised concern about the relatively low performance of Western Cape districts versus other provinces and their own record in prior years. “In particular, the downturn in performance of district east in 2018 is something we will be keeping a sharp eye on.”
Western Cape Education Department head Brian Schreuder said their vision for education remained clear: “To achieve quality education for every child, in every classroom in every school in the province. But we cannot do this without having the necessary systems, structures and policies in place.”
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is expected to announce the national matric results today, while provincial Education MECs were scheduled to make their announcements later on.
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