Matric 2016: Concern over poor performing provinces
Updated | By JacarandaFM News
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has confirmed the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal as the worst performers for the Class of 2016.
She announced the results of the 2016 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations in Midrand last night.
The national pass rate was pushed up to 72,5 percent.
That's 1,9 percent better than in 2015.
The Free State was announced as the top performing province.
The minister acknowledged the education problems in the Eastern Cape.
"There are five districts that received pass rates below 50 percent and all of them are in the Eastern Cape," says Motshekga.
About a hundred matrics in Limpopo are also still waiting for their results while the investigation continues into the leak of a Maths 2 Paper.
ANC spokesperson Khusela Sangoni says the party will ask the department to place greater focus on Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
"This to ensure that these rural provinces, which constitute almost 70 percent of the matriculants, are also able to improve drastically. We think that when it comes to quality teaching and learning, we must see greater intervention," says Sangoni.
The DA's Gavin Davis also says greater intervention is needed in rural provinces.
"They are difficult provinces to administer, because they are big and they are rural. That is one of the tragedies of South Africa 20 years after the end of apartheid - your educational opportunities, and by definition your job opportunities, are still very much determined by which province you live in, which district you live in and which school you go to," says Davis.
ALSO READ: Top matric achievers for 2016 announced
In his reaction to the matric results, EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi says the red berets believe the real pass rate is much lower than 72,5 percent.
"The matric results ought to be looked at not in relation to the students that sat for the exam, but taking into consideration the entire cohort from 12 years ago that should have sat for this exam. If that is taken into consideration, the pass rate is actually 40 percent, because of the high drop-out rate," says Ndlozi.
General Secretary of teachers' union Sadtu, Mugwena Maluleke says they are please by the improvement in some poor performing provinces.
"We are happy in terms of those particular provinces that are really make considered efforts to ensure they improve, in particular the province of the Eastern Cape that is really improving, and KwaZulu Natal - as a rural province - we have noted it has improved," says Maluleke.
Education expert Mary Metcalfe says she is pleased that Motshekga addressed the challenges faced by learners in poor performing provinces.
"She focussed on the inequalities in terms of race and class and that it is the poor that is performing less well in the educational system," says Metcalfe.
Metcalfe says more attention is needed on early learning.
"As a country we only focus on Grade 12 and the matric results and we don't give a similar focus on how learners are performing in primary school and in the lower grades of high school. We are not putting the attention and energy there that we need," says Metcalfe.
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