Drastic action needed to make school leavers more employable

Most South African pupils in public high schools are ill-prepared for Grade 12 and university, due to a decline in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subject performance, according to two leading education experts.

They have also warned that regression in science and mathematics performance over the years has contributed to young people lacking vocational skills to become employable after completing schooling – leading to a growth in youth unemployment.

With statistics showing pupils’ performance in science and business subjects at 50% level over the past five years, maths results have become reasonably stable – averaging between 20.3% in 2015 to just over 20.2% in 2019.

Hovering between 22% in 2015 and 33.1% in 2019, physical science has been on an upward trend in terms of performance averages.

University of Cape Town’s School of Education associate professor Joanne Hardman and Wits University mathematics education associate professor Craig Pournara have painted a gloomy picture of the post-apartheid public education system.

They say it needs a drastic overhaul. Reflecting on education statistics, Hardman said there was “a clear decline in Stem subject performance, with maths and the sciences dropping over the years”.

She warned that “this is obviously problematic and speaks to the fact that South African schools continue to underperform in these core subjects as has been recorded in the Timss [trends in international mathematics and science study] tests over the years”.

“Research indicates that South Africa has a shortage of confident and capable teachers in these specific subjects, with the foundation of this underperformance being situated at the level of teacher education.

“What is needed is far more input and training in the Stem subjects.

“Numbers of students electing to do teaching has risen over the years, while university departments giving these qualifications have not grown – meaning universities are expected to do more with less resources.

“While in-service training programmes can offer some assistance to teachers, they are not enough to enable teachers to grow their knowledge in Stem subjects.”

Hardman said education changes introduced since 1994 failed to equip teachers.

“Outcomes-based education [OBE] was a failure – not because OBE is inherently flawed as a pedagogical model, but because it required access to human and material resources that many public schools simply did not have.

“The curricula need to be less content dense and more conceptual.

“There is need to teach the core competencies of thought required for the 21st century to students in schools, rather than trying to cover large amounts of content.

“The ability to think creatively and problem-solve is more important than covering a large amount of content, which is reproduced in a summative assessment.”

Asked whether the department of basic education (DBE) prepared pupils for the future, Pournara said: “Many pupils don’t get enough points for their chosen university course because their maths and science marks are very poor.

“The DBE’s role is not to prepare all pupils for university.

“Clearly we need more pupils who can access university and this will require them to improve their marks.”

On whether pupils could be easily absorbed in careers in the private and public sectors, he said: “Most pupils in most public schools are not adequately prepared for Grade 12.

“They arrive at high school with backlogs, particularly in maths, with the majority not catching up during their five years of high school.

“This is partly because those who teach grades eight and nine mathematics may not be qualified to do so. They don’t have the necessary knowledge and skills to address pupils’ mathematical gaps, or to prepare them for the maths they will encounter in the further education and training phase.

“Pupils are poorly prepared for Grade 10 mathematics and many change to maths literacy.

“You cannot do physical science if you do maths literacy, which means pupils may have to drop physical science when they change from maths to maths literacy.

“If we want to improve passrates in key subjects in Grade 12, we need to invest in those who teach these subjects in Grades 8 and 9.

“If we could place two highly skilled and motivated Grade 8 maths teachers in every school in the country, we’d surprise ourselves at what we can achieve over five years.

“The same goes for all the key subjects – and that includes English.”

In comparing the Independent Examination Board (IEB) and the National Senior Certificate (NSC) university entrance level pass rate in the past five years – with the IEB averaging 88.9% and NSC 32.4% – both Hardman and Pournara conceded that the two were incomparable.

Said Hardman: “One cannot compare private schooling with public schooling in South Africa because private schools are far more resourced – both in human and material terms.

“The classes are smaller, allowing for teachers to develop students at their own pace.

– brians@citizen.co.za