Raise a glass to the 2016 Jewish matriculants

OWN CORRESPONDENT

Most Jewish day schools in the country write the Independent Examination Board (IEB) matric exams, while the bulk – mostly government schools – write the National Senior Certificate.

The King David Schools in Johannesburg – Linksfield and Victory Park – write the IEB exams, as do Yeshiva College and Hirsch Lyons. Although not a Jewish day school, the various Crawford campuses traditionally have a strong contingent Jewish learners. They also write the IEB exams. Herzlia in Cape Town as well as Torah Academy in Johannesburg, write the NSC exams.

The IEB pass rate for 2016 was an incredible 98,67 per cent, up from the previous year’s 98,30 per cent. The NSC percentage increased in 2016 to 72,5 per cent as against 2015’s percentage of 70,7. In fairness it has to be pointed out that many government schools are grossly under-resourced with many learners lacking the essential infrastructure and backing taken as read in private, IEB schools.

Yet heart-warming stories – backed up by brilliant results – abound from traditionally “black” schools, where adversity could not keep back the learner determined to excel, knowing that only through a good education could they escape the iron grip of poverty and often despair.

In 2016 11 022 fulltime and 703 part-time candidates from 237 examination venues in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Swaziland wrote the IEB exams.

Umalusi, the national matric exam regulator, has given the thumbs up to both the IEB and NSF results as being “free and fair”.

University of Pretoria educationist Prof Kobus Maree said IEB candidates seem to perform better than government schools because “teachers are in class when they are supposed to be and so are learners. The schools have… (more) money, so they are able to hire better-qualified teachers. There is also a lot of parental involvement in these schools.”

There’s a good reason why Jews are known as “People of the Book” and a huge premium is paid on a good education and on parental and teacher involvement. One tends to stand in awe of the brilliance of individual learners (rightly so), but it is a team effort.

As one teacher remarked: “I celebrate with my top learners. Their matric results are the culmination of 12 years of blood, sweat and tears. But what gives me equal pleasure is the child who is not so academically gifted but who passed through hard work and perseverance, often with results good enough for them to be admitted to any university or other tertiary education facility.”

The 2016 IEB cohort achieved a higher percentage of degree entrance marks at 87,61 per cent, compared to 85,26 per cent in 2015.

A whopping 442 672 learners wrote the 2016 NSC exams. Between 2012 and 2016 111 NSC schools obtained a 100 per cent pass rate, but 18 schools “boasted” a pass rate of 0 per cent.

There were “encouraging signs” in the matric results, but the litmus test for the education system in the country was the large number of grade 1 learners, in government schools, who dropped out long before reaching matric, said Paul Colditz, chief executive of Fedsas – the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools, a voluntary association of governing bodies of public schools.

Prof Mary Metcalfe, a former director-general of education, says she is worried about the tremendous rate of attrition among learners in government schools who start grade one but do not end up writing the matric exam.

“Only 36,6 per cent of learners who started school in 2005 in grade one, finished their schooling with a matric certificate,” she pointed out in a newspaper article.  “Of the 1 100 877 grade 10s in 2014, only 40,21 per cent passed matric in 2016.” The large number who fell by the wayside, remained a major worry, she said.

Then there is also the uncomfortable question as to whether some schools “massage” their matric results by eliminating “academically poor” learners along the way, so as not to adversely affect their matric result image. For many schools it has become a “prestige race”.

The Times newspaper in an editorial put it bluntly: “Let’s not be fooled – the true story of matric is bleak”. It quotes prominent educationist Prof Jonathan Jansen, former vice chancellor of the University of the Free State as saying that passing matric is “no great shakes”. Adds Prof Jansen: “Remember, the exams are rigged to make the weakest pupils pass, not to make the brightest pupils excel…”

Conversation Africa’s education editor, Natasha Joseph, asked Associate Professor Elisabeth Walton of the University of the Witwatersrand her views on the matric results (in government schools). “The national pass rate is a very blunt instrument with which to dissect South Africa’s very co0mplex educational problems. The national pass rate obscures important differences in provincial achievements, the urban/rural divide and the unequal outcomes for learners in poorer schools…

“The national pass rate also reflects only the learners who sat the exam. It does not take into account the number of early school leavers who did not make it to matric.”

Although IEB matriculants are largely shielded from these queries, they have to compete with some poorer NSC matriculants for limited places at the over-full South African universities. And if these questions would taint the learners who diligently achieved over 12 back-breaking years, with the support of an excellent school system and fierce family support, it would be a travesty.

Raise a glass – or two – to the excellent Jewish matriculants of 2016. They fully deserve every mark they were awarded.