East Cape matrics score highest pass rate in 26 years

In a major feat for the Eastern Cape, the matric class of 2019 achieved the highest pass rate for the province since 1994, with an overall rate of 76.5%.

This is an increase of 5.9 percentage points from the 70.6% pass rate in 2018.

The improved result has placed the province in seventh place — tied with the Northern Cape — in the provincial rankings, up from eighth in 2018.

The national pass rate, announced by basic education minister Angie Motshekga on Tuesday night, was 81.3% 

It was an improvement on the 78.2% in 2018 and 75.1% the year before.

The top-performing province was the Free State, with 88.4%, followed by Gauteng at 87.2%.

“All our provinces achieved above 70%, which is something we were all wishing for,” Motshekga said.

“I really want to applaud the Eastern Cape on achieving the highest improvement.

“There was an increase of 8% in [the national number of] bachelors passes, with 186,058 bachelor passes,” she said.

The Eastern Cape, which had just more than 103,000 pupils sitting the matric exams at the end of 2019, also increased its number of bachelors passes to 34%.

These bachelors passes are eight percentage points up, from the 26% achieved by the class of 2018.

This was confirmed by education MEC Fundile Gade, who spoke to The Herald’s sister publication the Daily Dispatch on Tuesday.

Motshekga said: “All of our 75 [teaching] districts performed above 60%, with the top three coming from Gauteng.

“Province by province, Nelson Mandela Bay was the best district in the Eastern Cape.”

Motshekga jokingly said she was now ready to leave her position because SA’s overall pass mark had reached “the A club”.

“This is the first time in the history of this country that we have surpassed [80%] — 2020 is [all] hands on deck, let’s not slide.” 

Gade said that after the Eastern Cape managed to surpass the 70% threshold, his department was given a target to improve by a further three percentage points “by internal education stakeholders”.

“We have generally performed extremely well and had been able to secure all the targets that were given to us.

“Also, we were given a mandate by all the people of our province, through their representatives at the provincial legislature, to improve the 2018 results by 5%.

“I am glad and excited to announce that we have done exactly that.

“We have met all our targets this year. In essence, we have in fact surpassed all targets given to us,” a jovial Gade said.

He said he was also excited that the province had achieved the target of improving the quality of the results, “judging by the good increase in the number of our bachelors passes”.

“We are one of the best in the entire country in terms of quality in our passes,” he said.

But Nelson Mandela University faculty of education senior lecturer Professor Shervani Pillay said the pass rate was not a reflection of the quality of education in the province because more passes did not mean better results.

“If anything, it deters from the real issues at hand,” Pillay said.  

“Calling the department of basic education to account for matric performance has put a lot of pressure on them to make a more concerted effort to try and support schools.

“Schools, in turn, have become more competitive and have tried hard to increase the 2019 matric pass rate.

“Poor quality education is a national misfortune, it creates the fallacious impression that simply passing matric is a gateway to a range of opportunities.

“Education should prepare pupils for a range of options that would enable them to create a sustainable future for themselves and the nation at large, more so in the current socioeconomic climate.”

Pillay said that to continue to increase the pass rate, a revision of the curriculum was needed that spoke to the needs, interests, curiosities and aspirations of contemporary pupils.

She said more support for teachers, particularly at the foundation phase, was also required in terms of overcrowded classrooms and unrealistic curriculum expectations.

“I think one of the key challenges that we need to pay more attention to is the actual matric papers.

“We need to pay more attention to who sets the papers and what do these assessors understand by quality.

“Quality is not about ‘catching students out’ or setting a matric paper that learners cannot understand.

“Quality is about assessing learners on what they have learnt/were taught.”

Northern Areas Education Forum secretary Richard Draai said though it applauded the results, more needed to be done to ensure continued progress.

“The [provincial] department of education has come to the party and we are seeing a gradual increase in the matric pass rate, which is great,” he said.

“Going forward, we need [the] right people to tackle the issues schools face — lack of textbooks and not enough teaching staff, for example.”

Draai said the department needed to look at the lower grades and ensure that pupils were being taught properly at grass roots level so that they would be better-equipped in the higher grades.

“I can probably say the pass rate is a true reflection of the quality of education.

“[But] there is a problem with people being pushed through, not only in matric but other grades as well.

“These children usually drop out of school because they can’t read or write.

“The gap is getting wider between the haves and the have-nots.”

The DA’s  Yusuf Cassim said: “We applaud the hard work, determination and sacrifices made by the learners, educators and parents through trying circumstances, which include insufficient and poor access to critical resources such as infrastructure, sanitation, internet and scholar transport.

“We want to extend our appreciation to the teachers and parents who worked tirelessly to ensure a positive result that will open the doors of opportunity to the youth of the Eastern Cape.

“The DA will, however, be keeping a close eye on the high dropout and low learner-retention rates in the province, especially in poor rural communities.”