DURBAN - There are fears that progressed pupils in Grade 12 could pull down the matric pass rate if the Department of Basic Education does not change it's strategy to assisting them.
KwaZulu-Natal alone has more than 30 000 progress pupils - those being pupils who were effectively pushed to Grade 12 despite not meeting the requirements to be promoted to matric.
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This was revealed by the KZN Department of Education's curriculum director, Dr Barney Mthembu, at the launch of winter classes for Grade 12.
Mthembu said although the class of 2018 was performing well, the department had noted that there was a challenge with progressed pupils whose performance was not improving in some education districts.
“If we do not change our strategy the progressed learners will pull us down. Some are trying, while others are proving a point that they were never ready. We are hoping through winter classes that these learners can catch up and improve their performance,” said Mthembu.
He said some were only passing at the 30% level and there was the potential that this would affect the collective pass rate at the end of the academic year.
Mthembu said their statistical analysis revealed that there was poor performance in mathematics, with Grade 9 pupils doing the worst.
“This is where the problem of learners passing at 30% starts and therefore we need to improve the pass percentage there. We need to ensure that learners pass mathematics and science at 50% and above, if that doesn’t happen then we are not going to produce the engineers and technicians we need,” he said Mthembu.
KZN Education head, Dr Enock Nzama said it was concerning that the province had the highest numbers of progressed pupils at 34 000.
“I suspect there is something wrong in our system, we can’t be increasing the number of progressed learners instead of decreasing, principals are we doing the right thing?"
Other challenges include language proficiency and reading with understanding.
“Teachers must do away with word limits on essays in writing, because learners just count the words to reach the limit instead of writing with understanding,” said Mthembu.
This year, KZN has aimed at achieving 80% matric pass rate.