77.2% pass rate for learners with special education needs

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Of the 2 777 learners with special education needs who wrote the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, 77.2% of them passed. 

A total of 906 and 789 of these learners achieved Bachelor and Diploma passes, respectively; 307 achieved Higher Certificate passes; two achieved NSC passes and 121 achieved endorsed NSC passes.

This was announced by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga at the release of the outcomes of the 2017 National Senior Certificate exams on Thursday.

“Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal should be congratulated for their combined contribution of Bachelor passes of 80.2% – an increase of 3.5% from 2016; and the combined contribution of Diploma passes of 70.1% – an increase of 4.1% from 2016.

“[A total of] 1 956 distinctions were achieved by learners with special education needs, including distinctions in the critical subjects, such as Accounting, Business Studies, Economics, Mathematics and Physical Science. The Western Cape’s contribution, is the largest with 1 599 distinctions,” Minister Motshekga said.

The Minister said providing learners with special education needs access to quality basic education programmes is an imperative.

“We have for the past few years included learners with special education needs in tracking learner performance in the NSC.”

No fee schools

The Minister also announced that NSC passes for no fee schools, combined, stand at 243 260, compared to 138 525 for fee paying schools.

The Bachelor passes achieved by learners in “no fee” schools, stand at 76 300; while fee paying schools produced 67 867 Bachelor passes. 

“This implies that in 2017, ‘no fee’ schools produced 53% of the Bachelor passes (compared to 52% in 2016, and 51% in 2015); while fee paying schools produced 47% Bachelor passes (compared to 48% in 2016, and 49% in 2015). 

“The significance of this is that the gap between the Bachelor passes produced by ‘no fee’ schools versus those produced by fee paying schools in 2016 of 4%, has increased to 6% in 2017,” Minister Motshekga said.

She said this pointed to a remarkable shift, as from 2015 to date, greater equity was observed, despite the reality that inequalities still remain in the system. 

“Government must be applauded for its pro-poor policies, which in the Basic Education arena, alleviate poverty through a variety of interventions – among others, the pro-poor funding of schools, the provision of nutritious meals on a daily basis, and the provision of scholar transport to deserving learners on daily basis.

“These interventions, called the ‘social wage’ by the Statistics South Africa, continue to improve access to schools, increase the retention of learners in schools, promote equity immeasurably in the basic education system; and improve substantively the quality of educational outcomes in our system,” she said.

Learners receiving social grants

A total of 79.7% of the learners who were recipients of some form of social grants, who wrote the 2017 NSC examinations, passed.  

A total of 5 016 of them achieved Bachelor passes; 5 997 achieved Diploma passes; 2 863 achieved Higher Certificate passes; and two achieved NSC passes.  

These learners also achieved 500 distinctions, including distinctions in critical subjects such as Accounting, Business Studies, Economics, Mathematics and Physical Science.

Minister Motshekga said the NSC examination results are one of the most important barometers to evaluate progress made by government in improving access, redress, equity, efficiency, and the quality of teaching and learning outcomes

“The primary purpose of these examinations is to provide learners with an exit qualification. We, however, are able to also glean on the progress we are making as a country to provide access to an inclusive, equitable, quality and efficient basic education to our children,” said the Minister. – SAnews.gov.za