{"id":148481,"date":"2017-01-02T19:43:33","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T17:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=148481"},"modified":"2017-01-02T19:45:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T17:45:21","slug":"half-of-2016s-matric-subjects-will-have-their-marks-adjusted-upwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/148481\/half-of-2016s-matric-subjects-will-have-their-marks-adjusted-upwards\/","title":{"rendered":"Half of 2016’s matric subjects will have their marks adjusted upwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

28 of the 58 National Senior Certificate subjects written by the matric class of 2016 will have their marks adjusted upwards, assurance body Umalusi announced recently<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the number of subjects adjusted upwards has been disclosed, the reasons why\u00a0certain subjects were chosen for a mark increase have not been made public, said\u00a0Gavin Davis \u2013 the DA\u2019s\u00a0Shadow Minister of Basic Education.<\/p>\n

Davis recently wrote\u00a0an open letter<\/strong><\/a> to Umalusi, asking the body why certain matric 2016 results were adjusted by it and the Department of Basic Education.<\/p>\n

In the letter, Davis disclosed information about the matric 2016 mark adjustments which was revealed during a\u00a0recent \u201cstandardisation meeting\u201d with Umalusi and the department which he attended.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the subjects saw a dramatic upwards adjustment,\u201d said Davis, including\u00a0maths and maths literacy.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Confidential report<\/h3>\n

Davis said attendees of the meeting were given data books on the mark adjustments and were told which marks would be adjusted.<\/p>\n

He said the data was marked as confidential and he was given a confidentiality agreement to sign, which he did not do \u2013 on the grounds that his duty to act in the public interest overrode it.<\/p>\n

Davis said there was no reason why the matric results \u2013 and their adjustments \u2013 should not be open for the public to scrutinise.<\/p>\n

The 28 subjects which were adjusted upwards are detailed in the table below, as per the information supplied by Davis.<\/p>\n

Davis said\u00a0Tshivenda Home Language and Geography were adjusted using a non-computer-calculated formula. A group of subjects also only received half adjustments based on the recommended computer-calculated figures.<\/p>\n

The full breakdown of adjustments per subject can be seen on MyBroadband<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Why marks are adjusted<\/h3>\n

Upward mark adjustments normally take place when \u201cthe exam paper was demonstrably more difficult than previous years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Davis said no evidence was put forward to \u201cdemonstrate that these papers were of a higher standard\u201d and that\u00a0the starting point for adjusting the marks was not the papers, but the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn cases when the raw mark was worse than last year\u2019s, the department\u00a0went back to the paper and found difficult questions to explain the drop in the raw mark. The DBE then motivated for the raw mark to be adjusted upwards accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said this method was incorrect, as the difficulty of the paper should be assessed independently of the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem of using the raw marks\u2026 is that there may be cases in which the paper was of the appropriate standard, but the learners were below the standard of previous years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that where\u00a0subject marks were higher than previous years, the department\u00a0did not go back to the exam papers to see if they were \u201ctoo easy\u201d.<\/p>\n

26 subjects did not have their marks adjusted, while four subjects had their marks adjusted downwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was little interrogation of why the raw mark was better than last year\u2019s and whether this could have been because the paper was too easy,\u201d said Davis.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of adjusting the marks downwards, the good raw mark was accepted as a welcome sign that the system is improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subjects which did not have their marks adjusted included:<\/p>\n