30% matric pass rate high on Gwarube’s priority list

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has announced plans to appoint a council of education experts, teacher unions and school governing bodies (SGBs) to review the matric pass rate and how it can be improved.

The current matric pass rate is 30%, with conditions.

No candidate can obtain a National Senior Certificate if they pass all seven subjects with 30%, according to the department. The pupils must pass at least three subjects at 40%.

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The pass rate, a constant subject of criticism, is on Gwarube’s priority list, she said on Wednesday.

“This is going to be one of the key things that are going to feature on the agenda of the council that I will be appointing which will include industry experts, teacher unions and SGB bodies,” she told SABC News.

“I would like that body to have a certain amount of time in which they look at and review where we are in terms of this particular issue around the national certificate and the percentage that it set as the pass mark. It is a concern for many people,” she said.

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“We don’t want people leaving matric with that thing being almost invaluable because the bar for a bachelor pass is that low,” added Gwarube.

Matric pass rate not the only problem

However, Gwarube said the department should not only focus on the matric pass rate but also on earlier grades, like grade 4, where 81% of the pupils cannot read for meaning, according to the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).

In her department’s budget speech on Monday, Gwarube said she had already been approached by concerned grade 4 parents.

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“They want to know how we will reconcile that reality with setting targets to increase the National Senior Certificate pass rate or improve the percentage of bachelor passes,” she said.

“While there has been some improvements, our literacy and numeracy rates remain unacceptably low. My team and I will obsess about getting learners at all levels to be able to read for meaning.

“I need us to be able to move up that ladder. Those levels are unacceptably low. We cannot justify 81% of learners in grade 4 not being able to read for meaning. That indicates to us that either they’re going to drop out of the system along the way or they’re not going to make it in grade 12,” she said.

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“It indicates to us that they will struggle to keep up with the rest of the syllabus up to grade 12. We will not look only at matric results as the barometer of the success of the system,” said Gwarube.

Lower grades important

To achieve a high matric pass rate, the department needs to start investing in lower grades, she said.

“You make sure that learners are up to par with what they need to do at every level. At the end, you can test and test well. We’ve got to input into the system so that when we test right at the end with matric, we’re testing something that we’ve already seen has been working throughout,” said Gwarube.