Two schools in KWT district see entire classes fail

With an overall pass rate of 56.8%, education MEC Mandla Makupula said the worst performing districts were:

lLady Frere with 46.3%, a drop from 63.9% in 2014;

lLusikisiki with 47.2%, a 13.9% drop from the 2014 mark; and

lQumbu with 47.9%, a dismal 27.2% decline from their 75% improved result in 2014.

The best performing districts also recorded declines:

lCradock scored 71.6%, a decrease of 11.3% from their 2014 lead of 82.9%;

lUitenhage came second with 69%, a 6.5% drop from 75.5% the previous year; and

lPort Elizabeth represented an 8.3% drop with 66%, despite a 74.3% pass last year.

Only eight districts obtained above 60%, and only Cradock achieving above 70%.

Fifteen districts obtained a pass rate below 60%.

The two schools with zero matric passes are Jama Senior Secondary School, which had 22 registered matrics, and St Thomas School for the Deaf with 12 Grade 12 pupils.

Makupula cited the high number of “progressed” pupils and the language change for second language speakers as some of the reasons for the decline.

“Progressed” pupils are those who are moved into matric year from Grade 11 although they failed to qualify but had been in Grade 11 for two years. “Of the 87000 matrics, 11709 were progressed pupils and 9000 of that number failed.

“Thus progressed pupils accounted for a 5.3% drop in our pass rate,” Makupula said.

“Another factor is that the CAPS policy was written in Grade 12 in 2014 for the first time.

“So 2015 was a second year and you could say that the first paper in 2014 was more of an introductory paper and it was only in 2015 that we got to write the real paper.

“So, in a sense, there were different levels of cognitive challenges faced in this year’s exams.”

Managerial weaknesses, poor subject choices and small unviable schools were highlighted as systematic departmental weaknesses requiring urgent attention.

“Despite our poor performance we can be proud of the following noteworthy achievements: over the last three years, the Eastern Cape can be proud at having delivered LTSM (learner teacher support material) timeously even before schools open, over one million learners in the province are benefiting from no-fee schools, 55000 pupils have access to scholar transport and more than a million pupils receive a nutritious meal at school every day.

Makupula urged all candidates who didn’t make it to take advantage of the newly-launched Second Chance Matric Programme, a programme which re-absorbs pupils back into the system to enable to rewrite their exams.

Pupils can contact their district office for more information. — zisandan@dispatch.co.za