Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane has big plans for educational reform in South Africa, including new requirements for passing matric.
The class of 2022 will find out their results when basic education minister Angie Motshekga officially announces the matric pass rate on January 19. Students will be able to access their results from January 20.
As many wait anxiously, Maimane called for the pass requirement to be changed to 50% in six subjects.
“A matric certificate should be issued on the basis of passing six subjects with 50% or more. 50% is the real pass mark. Anything else is deception of South Africans,” Maimane argued.
According to education quality assurance council Umalusi a basic matric pass with no access to higher education programmes requires a pupil achieving at least 40% in three subjects, including their home language, and to pass three other subjects with a minimum of 30%.
“There also has to be evidence that the School Based Assessment (SBA) (including Life Orientation) has been passed. If one were to convert this to an aggregate, the learner would have to achieve a score of 210 out of a possible 600 (or 35%), though provision for one failed subject could pull that aggregate down while still resulting in a pass.”
Maimane said the current pass mark is “not right” and called for interventions for those who do not reach the 50% plus in six subjects requirement.
“Accountability will be more direct for the ministers if they can’t hide behind inflated passes,” he said.
You should only get a matric certificate if you pass 6 subjects with 50% or more, says Maimane
Image: Denvor de Wee
Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane has big plans for educational reform in South Africa, including new requirements for passing matric.
The class of 2022 will find out their results when basic education minister Angie Motshekga officially announces the matric pass rate on January 19. Students will be able to access their results from January 20.
As many wait anxiously, Maimane called for the pass requirement to be changed to 50% in six subjects.
“A matric certificate should be issued on the basis of passing six subjects with 50% or more. 50% is the real pass mark. Anything else is deception of South Africans,” Maimane argued.
According to education quality assurance council Umalusi a basic matric pass with no access to higher education programmes requires a pupil achieving at least 40% in three subjects, including their home language, and to pass three other subjects with a minimum of 30%.
“There also has to be evidence that the School Based Assessment (SBA) (including Life Orientation) has been passed. If one were to convert this to an aggregate, the learner would have to achieve a score of 210 out of a possible 600 (or 35%), though provision for one failed subject could pull that aggregate down while still resulting in a pass.”
Maimane said the current pass mark is “not right” and called for interventions for those who do not reach the 50% plus in six subjects requirement.
“Accountability will be more direct for the ministers if they can’t hide behind inflated passes,” he said.
Responding to one social media user's claim that the pass mark cannot be changed until the quality of state schools improves, Maimane said it was time to expose the government's failures while working to fix the issues plaguing the education system.
“We must remove the mask, to expose the failures of government and to hold those accountable to taskwhile we concurrently deal with the shortage of teachers, incentives for teachers and students, baseline quality thresholds for schools and infrastructure repair in existing schools.”
TimesLIVE
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