Question NW3419 to the Minister of Basic Education
27 November 2018 - NW3419
Tarabella - Marchesi, Ms NI to ask the Minister of Basic Education
With regard to her department’s presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on 28 August 2018, in which the combined results of the 2017 National Senior Certificate examinations and their associated supplementary exams were presented, what is (a) the reason for the 0,1% decline in the Eastern Cape’s pass rate after the addition of the supplementary results and (b) being done to address the decline?
Reply:
a) With the combination of the November 2017 and Supplementary 2018, it is expected that the combined results will be higher in numbers and percentage. However, it needs to be noted that the combined results includes all outstanding marks that would have been added between the official release of results on 5 January 2018 and the final combined results released on 7 May 2018. In the case of the Eastern Cape, 2 544 more candidates were added to the number who wrote, compared to the other PEDs, where the additions were less than 1 000. This higher number of additional candidates added to the number of candidates that wrote in the Eastern Cape, who in the main failed the examination, and this caused the final combined percentage in the Eastern Cape to be lower, despite the increase in the numbers that achieved.
b) The province has intensified the provision of additional support over and above the normal teaching and learning, as part of their efforts to improve learning outcomes. Below follows a summary of the interventions undertaken, both for teachers and learners to support the Class of 2018:
- Mediation of 2017 Chief Markers and diagnostic reports per subject
- Tracking learner performance ;
- SBA Support;
- Common tasks;
- Holiday extra classes/camps;
- Weekend classes;
- Professional development forums or teacher support;
- Provision of additional LTSM;
- Provision of Radio lessons and Telematics Broadcast.