Should the Matric pass rate change?
In today's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Terence Pillay tackles the issue of the Matric pass mark. There is a debate raging about whether the pass mark should change, but Terence says that's not the point.
There has been a lot of talk about changing the pass mark at schools.
Up for debate is whether or not the Matric pass mark should be raised from its current level of 30%.
They’ve done it once before (changing it down to 30%), which I was totally opposed to, and now they’re doing it again.
For me, it’s a knick-knack solution to a far bigger problem of “dumbing down” that we do so well in this country. And of course, an educated nation is a powerful nation, right? So why would government want that? It behoves them to keep people exactly where they are now...
But the fact is: as it stands even pupils that do pass with a university entrance pass still struggle at university and we have a low through-put in the sense that of the students that enter university - let’s just say in science, mathematics and engineering - only 25% graduate.
That’s because their schooling doesn’t equip them for challenging university courses. A marginal shift of the pass rate between 30 to 40 percent is actually not significant at that level because those students are not going to university anyway.
We asked you what you thought should be done on Facebook. Here is what some of you had to say:
Here are a few of the SMS's, repeated word for word here, which came in:
- Maybe the south african student population shouldn't all be striving to be academics. Place more focus on the importance of quality artisans. Regards, Peter
- The amount of teachers that are sitting in docters rooms without an appointment to see a dr .and requiers a sicknote for the day. Where are the responsibility?
- Hi I'm from dbn north and I know teachers that update facebook during class time
- My sons teacher sends me text messages during teaching time. I've received several messages from her during the day And if I reply to her messages she replies
- I think that children firstly need to be taught manners and morals by their parents. Secondly parents need to take responsibilty for the homework and support teachers. Teachers are there to educate not bring ourchildren up. But teachers need to know what a responsibilty they are assuming. If they can't do the job leave.
- Sent a long sms which was rejected! Am listening avidly while working on a practical programme to help a rural sch improve their maths marks. Terrence is rght - but tht's a future solution. Wht about now? 1. Make gd results somethng to strive for in an area, ie competitive. 2. Step by step 'paint by numbers' esp in maths, easy for teas to follow. 3. In-house training for teas to improve their maths/eng. Susan
- Trials weren't even done with the syllabus. I think our teachers need to step up and take teaching seriously and the govern needs to improve standards
A new focus is needed
The focus should really be on the huge mass of learners who are a lost generation. You know, who are not in study or in work, those that are walking the streets literally looking for things to do...
So, to even think about dropping or raising the pass rate is a misplaced focus. We should be working on improving quality across the system, instead of shifting the end-game goal posts, which is in Grade 12. That’s the tail end of 12 years of schooling...
We should be prioritising quality teaching at all levels, and we should have a long term view to prioritise teaching as a profession and put it at the same level as say engineering or medicine.
In so doing, brighter people will enter the teaching profession and stay in the profession.
This is already done in Scandinavian countries like Norway and Finland where teaching is so high up on the career ladder, they have no choice but to turn out really bright kids.
An organisation making a difference
There’s an organisation called CASME – which stands of The Centre for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Education which was started in the early 80s. Their primary goal at the time was to address the inequalities in science and mathematics education in South Africa. These were systematic imbalances between white and black schools, particularly when it came to maths and science.
They provide support to maths and science teachers in rural and disadvantaged schools, and they continue to provide professional training and resources.
I was chatting to someone who works there the other day and he says it’s an uphill battle. On the one hand they make small inroads but the net loss of teachers is high, and while there are a lot of culture changes, the reality is a lot of teachers leave for more lucrative business opportunities.
In addition to the teacher programmes in which they are trying to make longer term changes there are also learner tuition programmes which are trying to improve the level of achievement of pupils in the short term. This is done to open up opportunities for them to study further and have a viable future.
If you say to somebody who’s got a choice to make, and this student is really bright, they choose engineering or medicine because the work prospects and the financial rewards are greater.
The same should be said for teaching. Teaching should be as attractive. And like engineering or medicine, it should be a life-long learning process. Teachers should be constantly encouraged to innovate and develop and in so doing perhaps we wouldn’t need to make a drop in the pass rate at school to validate the existence of these lazy teachers.
Let us know what you think. Should the pass rate be changed again, or is that not the point? Leave your thoughts in the comments' section below.
- Terence Pillay
(Photo: Gallo Images)