South Africa plans to assess provincial education using broader indicators — TimesLIVE
In Pretoria, South Africa, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube announced plans to introduce a broader set of indicators for assessing the performance of provincial education systems. She warned against an excessive focus on the proportion of pupils who pass the matric final examinations, TimesLIVE reports.
Record number of candidates
During a briefing on preparedness for the 2026 National Senior Certificate examinations, Gwarube said that 815,051 full-time candidates had registered. This is 48,508 more than last year and the highest number of full-time candidates ever.
A further 147,781 candidates registered to take the examinations part-time, including to improve previous results. The total number of candidates is 962,832. The examinations will begin on Tuesday and continue until November 26.
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Assessment using multiple criteria
According to the minister, focusing solely on a high pass rate may have contributed to undesirable practices. She said that some pupils considered weaker were not promoted to Grade 12, while others were kept in Grade 11 contrary to promotion rules. In her view, this may have artificially increased the expected results of schools and provinces.
Gwarube also criticized the practice of encouraging pupils to choose mathematical literacy instead of mathematics in order to improve the overall pass rate. She believes this affects the training of specialists in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as accounting and economic sciences.
The new approach is expected to take into account the number of results qualifying pupils for bachelor’s degree programmes, the number of distinctions, pupil retention in school, their participation and results in key subjects — mathematics, physical sciences, accounting and economics. Improvements in literacy, mathematical skills, pupil retention in school and their participation in studying key subjects will also be assessed.
