{"id":304940,"date":"2019-03-13T08:19:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T06:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=304940"},"modified":"2019-03-13T08:19:01","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T06:19:01","slug":"big-change-for-matrics-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/304940\/big-change-for-matrics-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Big change for matrics in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Basic Education has announced that it will be scrapping Multiple Examination Opportunities (MEOs) from 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Originally introduced in 2017, the system allowed struggling matric students to complete their examinations over two years.<\/p>\n<p>A number of criteria needed to be met before students are allowed to qualify for the \u201cMultiple Examination Option\u201d (MEO) including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The learner writing the exam must be a progressed learner;<\/li>\n<li>Have completed all his\/her SBA requirements in all seven subjects;<\/li>\n<li>Have attended school regularly (not absent for more than 20 days without a valid reason);<\/li>\n<li>Have written the Preparatory examination (prelims) in all subjects;<\/li>\n<li>Have failed a minimum of three subjects;<\/li>\n<li>The learner selecting the Multiple Examination Option must write a minimum of three subjects in his first year (excluding LO) and must have written all seven subjects by the second year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Under the revised system, there will now be one end-of-year exam for all matriculants irrespective of their performance during the year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had to acknowledge that while well-intentioned, the Multiple Examination Opportunity is being used by some schools as a gatekeeping mechanism and not for its original intentions,&#8221; said Basic Education minister, Angie Motshekga.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Instead of assisting vulnerable learners to attain a matric certificate, it was allowing schools to cull learners through this process and not adequately supporting them through the multiple examination opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For this reason, we took the bold decision to protect learners and do away with the MEO from 2020,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other changes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Motshekga also announced that her department is developing a coding and robotics curricula to be included from grades R-9.<\/p>\n<p>She said that curricula will provide learners with an understanding of coding and robotics and will develop their skills and competencies to prepare them for the fourth Industrial Revolution.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The curricula will ensure that our schooling system produces learners with the foundations for future work, and equip them with skills for the changing world,&#8221; Motshekga said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The curricula will provide learners with an understanding of coding and robotics and will develop their skills and competencies to prepare them for the 4th Industrial Revolution.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The curricula will ensure that our schooling system produces learners with the foundations for future work, and equip them with skills for the changing world,&#8221;she said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/304684\/south-african-schools-will-soon-get-these-3-new-subjects\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South African schools will soon get these 3 new subjects<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Basic Education has announced  a number of new changes for South African schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":108223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-304940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304940"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304964,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304940\/revisions\/304964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}