By Kouthar Sambo
The newly appointed Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, has announced some rather sweeping changes as she attempts to evaluate the 30% pass requirement for Matric students as well as rescinding the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill.
The 30% pass requirement explained
Speaking on VOC’s Sunday Live show on Sunday, education expert Mary Metcalf said the main issue is the powers of school governing bodies to determine language policy.
“The 30% pass rate is an incorrect characterisation of the reality of what that means. Learners now have one school leaving certificate, being the National Senior Certification (NSC) – which people call matric – and this comes with four categories of passing,” explained Metcalf.
She proceeded to break down these categories:
“You can pass with sufficient marks to be considered eligible to proceed to a Bachelors degree or a lower level, which would enable you to proceed to a certificate or diploma or just about pass.”
She emphasized that learners cannot pass with 30% in more than one or two subjects and then proceed to a Bachelors or diploma.
“But if you get all the way through 12 years – repeating along the way, and you get a certain number of passes of 30% – you can just about scrape through with an NSC but not proceed,” she outlined.
“This allows learners who have no intention of studying further to claim they have finished school, and this will indicate to higher institutions the learner has not performed.”
School governing bodies should be cognizant of broader community language needs
“My view is that the powers of school governing bodies of public schools very clearly have to be influenced by the broader needs of the community in a sense that language position of communities has been changing.”
“School governing bodies of public schools need to serve the whole community since democracy when it comes to the power to determine language policy. To achieve this, the department has to interact with the school governing body to ensure the language policy serves the broader public,” detailed Metcalf.
This phenomenon suggests that school governing bodies have power, she explained, but so does the education department.
According to Metcalf, there have been frequent court cases to affirm that the education department must interact with the school governing bodies so the policy of the school serves the broader need.
The BELA Bill in education
She further shared her perspective on how the BELA Bill impacts education at large.
“There is no real change except that this BELA Bill spells out the detailed processes of administration through which that procession is made. If a school governing body chooses a language policy and that fails to accommodate the needs of the learners, then there’s a set of procedures that must be followed,” remarked Metcalf.
She further stressed that it cannot be solely the power of the school governing body and a public school to determine the language policy they want without considering the broader needs of the community.
Photo: VOCfm [screenshot/speaking to VOC News at the Opening of Parliament]
