Matric

[Hermes]

I thought St Ones was a boastful referece to academic achievement.

[StevoMuso]

I also did matric in '76 - Pretoria Boy's High

I am also a '76 boy. Morgenzon Landbou Skool.

Yay! Class of '76 produced 3 of us! CoooWELL!

[Rigil Kent]

I thought St Ones was a boastful referece to academic achievement.

 

On the topic of subject choice:
http://www.rapport.co.za/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Matriek-sonder-wiskunde-20110107-3
M.

[alloytoo]

I see that the 2010 Gr 12 results are out with an improvement over previous years. Is that because of a genuine improvement, a more relaxed exam or a not so stringent marking of the papers? In 2010 there was the World cup and strike so pupils lost a lot of work days. I am somewhat sceptical about this.

Given that those that passed represent 28% of the children that originally entered the education system, I see very little to be pleased with. The education system has failed almost a million children.

Over course 28% might well be considered a pass mark nowadays.

[BoogieMonster]

I finished matric in '98, afaik this was one of the last years to not be on the "new and improved" OBE syllabus, at that point HG maths at a national level included quite a bit of differentiation over a substantial part of the matric year. IIRC logarithms were the first thing we did day 1 of matric, followed by differentiation, limits, and then moving onto the usual trig/geometry stuff. At the very, very end we were introduced to integration. Just basic stuff, nothing like 1st year calculus.

I also recall us walking out of our trig/geometry final ready to commit suicide. It was one of those "controversial" papers that just seemed unreasonable from the first question, robbed me of my distinction ... and sunk quite a number of students. I recall being over the moon with the algebra paper, but that trig paper made me think I'd just lost my varsity entry. Luckily when I walked out this seemed like the all-round consensus, and it seems the varsity was fine with that mark.

I'm actually shocked to see that these days for a varsity exemption all you require is a 40% mark. Wow.

[Mefiante]

At last:  A reader shows how SA can achieve a 100% matric pass rate in just a few short years.  In Afrikaans, nogal.

'Luthon64

[cyghost]

 

[Mefiante]

For those who struggled with matric Afrikaans (i.e. those who saw too much of their Afrikaans teachers):

According to my normally undiscerning calculations, the average grade 12 pupil (oh, I mean learner) has over the past year had 20,25 workdays less class contact with her teachers.

This has, as per confirmed reports, led to an astonishing rise in the national pass rate from 60,6% to 67,8%, or in fact about 7 percentage points.

How are we to interpret this miracle?  Does this mean teachers are an obstacle to our learners’ education, or does it simply mean too much of a good thing is bad?

Be that as it may, it is potentially an international breakthrough in pedagogy.  I know this theory is counterintuitive, but many a scientific advance has been made through lucky coincidence.

What now remains for our Department of Basic Education to do, I’d like to propose, is to test the “hypothesis of the semi-useless teacher” this year by asking SADTU to extend lost class time with learners by a further 20 days to a full 40 workdays.

If my theory holds up, the national pass rate will increase by a further 7 percentage points to a robust 75%.  If the experiment yields success this year, we can raise the number of lost contact days in 2012 from 40 to 60, and so on.

It is perhaps even possible – provided my theory holds up – that in this manner we can within five years surpass the magical 100% pass rate.  Indeed, we can achieve this target even sooner, because remember that in three years’ time matriculants will have already had four years of reduced teacher contact, not just one year.  Needless to say, a pass rate of over 100% is a noble goal and will hold many advantages for our country.

ERWIN RODE

Eversdal

'Luthon64

[DNA]

Turns out it has been discovered why there were such badly performing schools. Witchcraft nogal.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article851368.ece/Badly-performing-schools-blame-witchcraft

[StevoMuso]

Turns out it has been discovered why there were such badly performing schools. Witchcraft nogal.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article851368.ece/Badly-performing-schools-blame-witchcraft

Un-friggen-believable!

[Brian]

Not-so-unbelievable Stevo. When people have been indoctrinated from birth in to mysticism, religion, magic and such BS, combined with an external-locus-of-control mentality, they:

• do not accept responsibility for their own failures
• apportion blame to whichever deity, spirit etc that is fashionable and/or instills sufficient fear to get them off the hook

In addition, I have seen on our farm that a woman who suffers from epilepsy, and has a seizure is seen to be possessed by demons and would opt for treatment by a witchdoctor instead of seeking medical attention. To add to this, when this happens they seem to believe that they are 'special' and then cut out for training as a sangoma! ..and so the myth is perpetuated.

[Hermes]

This development gives us a clear indication of the quality of person that can be a school principal.   I would not be entirely surprised if they retain their positions - believing in witches can be regarded as religion, not so?   Those schools sound like zoos.

[Lilli]

I would not be entirely surprised if they retain their positions - believing in witches can be regarded as religion, not so?

Which is exactly why religion, in my opinion, should be kept out of schools entirely. Nobody should care if you failed an exam because an evil spirit made you stupid or because you were too lazy to study, or too stupid to pass the test to begin with. Sure, if the level of teaching was not up to scratch, then the powers that be can try do something about it, but playing a blame-game never really gets anyone anywhere. (much like religious ideas in general  ) And while we're (almost) on the topic of religion in schools, students should not be wasting time in those religious assembly thingies on Monday mornings. seriously. wft? The whole educational approach seems to me to be based on religious indoctrination a whole lot more than what it should be, or claims to be.