Question NW836 to the Minister of Basic Education

Reply:

An independent inquiry is not necessary, since the causes for poor performance of learners in the KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces are fully understood, and an inquiry will not reveal any new findings. However, if the notion of the joint task team, referred to by the Honourable Mr Davis, emanates from the article in the Sunday Times, dated 6 March 2016, which stated that “The Department of Basic Education has called for a probe into the process used to standardise matric exam marks after last year's upward adjustment of scores in 30 subjects”, it needs to be stated that this is part of the mischievous reporting on the part of the Sunday Times, which may have created this idea that a joint task team was being established between the DBE and Umalusi. This information emanates from a leaked document that was prepared for a meeting of the Council of Education Ministers (CEM), where the reasons for the decline in the performance of the learners in the 2015 NSC examination was being discussed. On an annual basis the DBE together with the PEDs reviews the performance of learners in the previous examination, with a view to establishing improvement plans for the current year. However, for 2016, it was considered necessary to also engage Umalusi in a bilateral discussion to discuss the reasons for the drop in the performance in the 2015 NSC examination, given their quality assurance role. Hence, there is no task team established between the DBE and Umalusi, but as part of the DBE`s ongoing initiatives to improve learner performance, it will meet with the Quality Assurance Council, Umalusi, on this matter.