POLOKWANE – Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga says the Department’s new format of reporting, known as “An Inclusive Basket of Criteria”, had revealed that the Free State was not the top-performing province as claimed by Minister Motshekga and the Free State MEC, Mr. Tate Makgoe, earlier this year.
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In a statement released by the DA, it says that besides achieving the highest proportion of mathematics passes, bachelor passes and distinctions, the Western Cape also had the highest throughput rate, whereas the Free State had the fifth highest throughput rate.
DA MP and Shadow Minister for Education, Gavin Davis, says this is important because a low throughput rate indicates a high number of learners either dropping out of the system, or being held back.
“Indeed, a high pass rate can be manufactured if weak learners are actively held back or encouraged to exit the system,” he said.
Davis explains that the practice of holding learners back to inflate the pass rate, known as ‘culling’ or ‘gatekeeping’, is well known.
“Just last week, a Deputy Director-General in the Department of Basic Education told Parliament that some principals deliberately hold back learners to inflate their school’s matric pass rate,” he said.
Reporting on the ‘Inclusive Basket of Criteria’ will go some way to expose those principals, education officials and politicians who attempt to ‘game’ the system.
“Only a full-scale investigation will identify those guilty of ‘culling’, hold them to account and serve as a deterrent to those tempted to engage in the practice,” Davis concluded.
