News
NSC Results - not good enough, can do better
January 29, 2010
All provinces recorded declines in physical sciences, the most dramatic being KwaZulu-Natal where the pass rate in Physical Sciences halved.
Tshikululu’s annual analysis of matric results is written by Epoch-Optima trustee Margie Keeton.
The 2009 National Senior Certificate Results were released on 7 January 2010 to general dismay.
The pass rate declined for the seventh year in a row and learner performance in key “gateway” subjects (specifically English, Maths and physical sciences) confirmed that much wished-for progress is still not in sight.
“We have not yet begun to turn the corner,” the Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshegka concluded, further describing herself as “most unhappy” with the “disappointing results”. Motshegka went on to the list the now familiar catalogue of failings in South African schooling – citing poor teaching, weak management and inefficient systems, before promising “urgent action” and improvements in the 2010 results.
Learners must take seven subjects for the National Senior Certificate (NSC) including Life Orientation, which is examined at the schools themselves. Two levels of pass apply, 30 and 40%. To pass matric, candidates must pass six of their seven subjects, three of these (including “home language”) at 40%. To obtain a certificate which allows them to undertake Bachelors study (the old university exemption), four of the six subjects passed must be at the 50% level and must be recognised 20-credit NSC subjects. All candidates take maths in some form (with slightly more than 50% doing mathematics rather than maths literacy) and two South African languages.
The results overall
Fully 552 000 fulltime learners sat the NSC examinations and 335 000 passed. This was slightly more than in 2008 because of increased enrolments, but with the pass rate overall falling from 62,5% to 60%, considerably more failed. Moreover, more than 40% of learners drop out before even reaching grade 12, creating more wastage and inefficiency. The pass rate fell in eight of the nine provinces, with Limpopo and Mpumalanga falling below the 50% mark.
The performances of the provinces vary considerably. The Western Cape remains the strongest performer with a 76% pass rate, but this is in part a factor of the strong presence of schools in the higher socio-economic and resource brackets (more than 70% are Quintile 4 and 5 schools on the Department of Basic Education’s rating scale). Once again, the Free State performed very creditably with a 69% pass rate from learners, the majority of whom attended the very poorest schools (quintiles 1 and 2). KwaZulu-Natal was the only province to increase its pass rate.
Performance in key subjects
Achievement in Maths was very similar to 2008, although no details are available on the optional paper 3 which includes the key field of Euclidean Geometry. In 2008 the numbers doing paper 3 were very small and are likely to have been so again given that the Department has postponed indefinitely the date by which learners doing Maths will be required also to do the third paper.
Almost half (46%) of learners doing Maths passed at the 30% hurdle and almost a third (29%) at the 40% hurdle. This was attributed by departmental officials to “the challenging paper which teachers are still struggling to keep up with” – an interesting way of acknowledging that learners are inadequately prepared at all levels of learning as the results of systemic testing at grade 3 and 6 levels confirm.
Only 15% of learners doing the NSC passed maths at the 40% level, a most unsatisfactory outcome given that more than half of them attempt the subject and that universities recognise that it is needed for engineering, science and commerce study. Again the provincial differentials are evident, with a Western Cape learner having almost twice as much chance of passing maths as a learner from the Eastern Cape or Limpopo.
One of the things masked in the results is that the NSC examines only grade 12 work – grade 10 and 11 work is “written off” at the end of each year and most learners advance to grade 12 with only limited understanding of broad mathematical principles and techniques. In other words, even with a 40% (or higher) pass in maths in the NSC, a learner’s ability in maths may be totally inadequate when compared to material the FET curriculum specifies. The same is true in the physical sciences and indeed is exacerbated by the fact that physics and chemistry are taught in grades 8 and 9 as part of a much broader curriculum of Natural Sciences. It is perfectly possible for a learner to enroll for Physical Sciences in grade 10 with no foundational learning in the subject (NCS Review).
Maths Literacy also saw a decline, but it was generally agreed that the examination papers were too easy in 2008 and this may have been rectified second time round. There are certainly a large number of learners attempting Maths who would have a better chance of passing Maths Literacy.
The other subject to cause concern is English First Additional Language (FAL), the subject other than Life Orientation that is taken by the largest number of learners (483 000). Another 100 000 learners do English as Home Language, the biggest home language option after isiZulu.
The numbers suggest that every learner does English for NSC which is a good start as it is the language in which most learners are taught, making communication skills – written and verbal – a key life skill for all. Almost all learners who take it pass English FAL, but only some 72% do so at the 40% level. This is some improvement over 2008 but is also a reason why performance in other mainstream subjects remains stubbornly low.
Science results a shock
The biggest shock came in Physical Sciences where the national pass rate dropped from 55 to 37 per cent (29 to 21% at the 40% hurdle). In learner terms the number passing Physical Sciences at the 30% hurdle fell by 38 000, a staggering number given that 220 000 learners wrote the exam. The drop was 17 000 at the 40% hurdle.
All provinces recorded declines in physical sciences, the most dramatic being KwaZulu-Natal (the province which traditionally provides a large number of the successful maths and science students) where the pass rate in Physical Sciences halved!
Quality indicators also decline
The quantity/quality issue is especially highlighted in KwaZulu-Natal where the province improved its overall pass rate but where its learners did worse in the harder subjects. That quality suffered overall is evidenced by the decline in the number of schools recording 100% passes, from 502 in 2008 to 420 in 2009 – 147 of which were private schools. While it is encouraging that the number of schools achieving very poorly (below 20%) has declined, the number getting above 80% has also declined, producing more of a “bunching” at middling-to-poor levels of performance. The number of schools the Department considers to be “underperforming ” (getting under 60%) has also increased despite provincial interventions in this area, suggesting that levels of institutional vulnerability in the system as a whole have risen.
How much do learners actually know?
The number of university exemptions (eligibility to proceed to Bachelor’s study) came in at 110 000. There has been considerable debate following the difficult experience of first year students at university last year as to how helpful NSC marks actually are in predicting what a learner has effectively learnt or whether they could be expected to succeed at university.
As Nan Yeld, the co-coordinator of the National Benchmark Tests run at selected universities last year has commented, the gaps between what is officially in the curriculum, what is actually taught, and then what is examined in the NSC, “are worryingly large”.
Action on underperforming schools?
Government has been taking steps. The MEC for Education in the Eastern Cape pointed to progress in the fact that schools in that province that had previously achieved 25% passes had moved up to the 30% bracket – but this is still woefully weak. All schools that achieve less than a 60% pass are designated as “underperforming” and are the focus of special interventions across the country. As this group comprises a majority of schools, such interventions present a considerable demand on an already overstretched teaching corps and on understaffed support structures.
Indeed, it appears that they can be counter productive as schools are deluged with additional, often contradictory, instructions from different levels in the bureaucracy along with hastily put together material of “questionable quality” (NCS Review).
Possible points of leverage
Closer examination of the details provided to date reveals some surprises and suggests some important areas of leverage. Even among quintile 1 schools (especially in KwaZulu-Natal), there are schools performing disproportionately well and often with large numbers of learners. These suggest themselves as focus areas for considered efforts in order to go someway to meeting the Minister of Higher Education’s call for more learners from poor backgrounds to gain admission to university.
The statistics also show there are many quintile 3 and 4 schools that perform poorly relative to their respective resource levels. This suggests that they have the potential to do better with appropriate support and encouragement.
Some provinces may provide easier places to work for real gains than others. Thus 75% of “underperforming schools” are to be found in three provinces – KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. KwaZulu-Natal is certainly the one to give priority to although its size creates challenges – it has the largest number of learners and the largest number of schools, but its schools are somewhat better resourced on average and its weaker schools appear evenly distributed rather than concentrated in poorly performing districts. Indeed, with its improving overall pass rate, KwaZulu-Natal could be the ideal province to work in to try to achieve significant improvements relatively quickly.
But the challenge is particularly hard in Limpopo given the relatively weak resource base of schools there (63% of which are Quintile 1 or 2) and the fact that school performance has slipped noticeably from 2008 with the number of “underperforming schools” increasing by 20% in addition to the 6% fall in the overall provincial pass rate.
The recent review of the New Curriculum Statement (NCS) suggested that some early steps that should be taken. The report highlighted textbooks as a major contributory factor and called for the simplification of procurement and distribution policies, currently different in each province. They also urged English to be taught as an additional language from Grade 1 (as current policy states) rather than Grade 3 (as seems to be common practice). They also urge that the range of learning areas be reduced at critical transition points (grade 4 and grade 9) and that more time be given in the teaching week at all levels to English and Maths. These are all practical steps. Progress would be further assisted if the commitment made in the ANC Roadmap to all teachers being “in the classroom, on time and teaching” was to be enforced.
Change requires real leadership
Given that so many of the obstacles to effective learning are systemic, it will be some time before South Africa can realistically hope to “turn the corner”. The Minister talks of improvements in 2010; her officials refer rather to a five year timeframe. Either way, nothing much will happen without clear, consistent and disciplined action at all levels.
From the 2008 OECD Review of SA Education, to the Road Map and the most recent NCS Review, there is no shortage of analysis of the schooling problem and the realities underpinning poor learner achievement. Recommended interventions have been made aplenty. Political will is the chief ingredient required for success now. This means confronting strong interest groups (including Sadtu and elements within the provincial education departments) that may resist.
The problem is far more than just a matter of unequal resourcing of schools, and it is hard not to endorse the comment by Black Wash (a Soweto NGO) that “black learners fail because they have been systematically underprepared from Grade 1”. There is indeed a long way yet to go before turning the corner.
It is the responsibility of leadership – politicians, administrators, principals and teachers – to lay the foundations now for improved learner performance across the system, but we should not expect to see the results of this in 2010 or even for a good few years thereafter.
For too many learners in the system, the die is already cast.
