The pass rate for the 2014 matric exams is expected to drop by as much as 5% – the first decline in 5 years, the City Press reports.<\/p>\n
Citing the head of exam quality control at Umalusi, Professor John Volmink, the decline is due to poor maths, physical science and home language results.<\/p>\n
A 5% decline would see as many as 178,000 pupils failing (out of about 660,000 who penned the exams), which translates to a pass rate of approximately 73%, down from a 78.2% pass rate seen in 2013.<\/p>\n
Volmink was quoted as saying that, in his experience, the raw scores \u2013 which account for 75% of the final matric mark \u2013 indicated that there would be a 3%-5% drop in the overall pass rate.<\/p>\n
Volmink noted further that there was a 48% failure rate in maths literacy \u2013 which is a compulsory subject \u2013 and a 5%-6% drop in the pass rates for maths and physical science.<\/p>\n
The predictions were based on unadjusted results.<\/p>\n
The drop in the maths results were expected due to a change in the curriculum in 2014, which saw the addition of Euclidean geometry and probabilities, which were \u201cconceptually hard\u201d, according to the professor.<\/p>\n
For this reason, a lot of pupils failed maths compared to previous years; but there were also more As in the subject, Volmink noted.<\/p>\n
Subsequently, Umalusi said that the maths results would be adjusted downward for the top pupils, and maths literacy would be adjusted upwards, in line with the 5-year standard.<\/p>\n
The results of home languages would also be adjusted upward, as the subject\u2019s failure rate was \u201csignificantly higher\u201d than previous years.<\/p>\n
The overall pass rate is expected to be announced on Monday, 5 January.<\/p>\n
The full report can be read in the City Press for 4 January 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n SA education system among worst in the world<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Most expensive schools in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on SA education<\/h3>\n