Tessa Dooms
The problem with this 30% debate is that we want simple answers to complex questions. It’s not even that I don’t think the pass mark should be higher, it’s that I don’t care where you set it if it’s in the context of a failing system.
- Ask teachers why they cannot get learners to a 50% pass, it’s not for a lack of trying, it’s because they have not got the support or the correct systems to teach and learn at that level. Changing the pass mark won’t change that.
- Changing the pass mark is a political gimmick. It will expose the weaknesses in the system by having higher failure rates and will be hood political fodder to hold politicians accountable, but will only make things worse for learners. Not only will the conditions for learning not change they will drop out at higher rates and be lost to the system faster and in even higher numbers.
- Even if all learners start doing better and get 50% passes, we don’t have enough access to universities to accommodate the learners getting Bachelor passes now. Where will they go?
- You don’t need higher pass marks to get higher results you need structural solves. The pass mark is a minimum not an inhibitor for getting a higher mark.
- The DBE can’t even reach its own minimum standards for teaching, maybe we should meet and raise those standards before raising learner standards.
- Also what is the science that tells us that 50% is the magic number? Why not ask them to pass at 80%? What convinces us that learning 50% is enough? What if it’s 50% of nonsense? What if it’s 50% of rote learning? Why is the number more important than the quality of teaching and learning?
If we want better results, we need to fix the system fundamentally.
- Increase the number of qualified teachers willing to teach in public township and rural schools – reducing class sizes
- Invest in school management development
- Invest in tutoring and after-school support – tutors and programmes
- Infrastructure – need I say more?
The DBE cannot even meet its own basic minimum standards for education. We should meet and raise those standards before requiring more from learners.
This is a political debate based on populist lies that a 30% pass is an invention of the ANC and a lowering of standards. The same people who are angry about 30% studied in a context where Standard grade passes were 33% and Lower grade passes were possible.
I’m exhausted at superficial political plasters.
