Matric 'better, but only just'
Alet Rademeyer, Beeld
Pretoria - This year's matric results will probably be marginally better than last year's, say education experts.
They predicted an average pass that would not deviate much from last year's average of 68.3%.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor is due to give an overview of results in Cape Town on Thursday, and various education ministers will do the same in the provinces.
Despite the sombre prediction about the pass average, there was a rich crop of candidates who distinguished themselves with distinctions again this year.
Gauteng boasts one candidate who obtained 15 As - Corné de Witt of Kempton Park High School.
Jaco Jordaan of Roodepoort High School on the West Rand was the only candidate to get 11 distinctions.
Pass rate 'a disappointment'
Five candidates from Gauteng and one from Limpopo obtained 10 As each.
In Gauteng, Northwest, Mpumalanga and Limpopo 15 candidates each got nine distinctions, 77 got eight, 8 230 got seven distinctions each and 453 obtained six each.
Professor Billy Fraser, chief of curriculum studies at the University of Pretoria and an external examiner for biology for an insurance company, said this year's pass rate was a disappointment considering that most suburban schools annually managed to achieve a pass rate of more than 90%.
"It seems as if rural schools still don't deliver the expected outcome and education at these schools remains sub-standard."
According to Fraser, one could deduct from this that little quality education was taking place at under-achieving schools.
Fraser said it became clear during external moderation of exam papers that many pupils were again writing exams without proper preparation, or that education was so poor as to deliver no mentionable achievement.
"It was, for example, not strange to find that pupils sometimes got only three or five marks for a question that was worth 25 or 35 marks."
Fraser also believed this year's results were predictable from the annual external portfolio moderation set for certain subjects.
"The portfolios for advantaged schools towered above the disadvantaged schools, while the achievements of the disadvantaged schools still failed to conform to the norm."
According to Fraser, the matric results were nothing to get excited about, as it was no great thing for schools to get a pass rate of 80%.
'Independents' get good results
Education experts said the role of outcomes-based education contributing to many pupils' poor achievement could not be underrated.
This year's group of pupils also received outcomes-based education throughout their school careers, but had to revert to writing the old-style matric exam.
Candidates who wrote the independent exams and the exams of the Beweging vir Christelike Volkseie-Onderwys exams again achieved excellent results.
News was from www.news24.co.za
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