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News | Events | Academic | Arts and Culture | Sport | Clubs and Societies | The School | Past Pupils | Archive | |
At last, we name best academic schoolsMore exemptions are better value than an institution with a 100% pass rate. CORNIA PRETORIUSOBTAINING a 100% pass rate is important for schools - but matric exemptions are also vital. Today the Sunday Times names those schools which had the best matric results in 1999 - and the list isn't restricted to those with a 100% pass rate. The list of 70 schools (below), ranked according to their exemption rates, all wrote the Grade 12 exam administered by the nine provincial education departments. The list expands on the national Department of Education's publication of 5 500 high schools' matric pass rates in the Sunday Times last month. Experts and education authorities agree that pass rates alone provide limited information. Of the 357 schools that achieved a 100% pass rate in the 1999 exam, 50 institutions achieved an exemption rate of less than 30%. Educationist Penny Vinjevold says that a school with a 90% pass and a 60% or higher exemption provides greater quality and value for money than a school with a 100% pass rate and low exemption rate. "An emphasis on a perfect 100% takes away from a school's focus on providing the most number of learners with the greatest opportunities. "Teachers begin to discourage participation in high-risk but valued subjects such as maths and science. And schools begin to exclude marginal and severely traumatised learners in order to protect their perfect 100% records," she says. Another factor to consider is throughput, says Vinjevold, as schools with high pass rates sometimes achieve this by selecting only top pupils or failing weak candidates at Grade 11 level. The focus on exemption is because it remains the entry requirement to the majority of South African universities and technikons. The deputy director-general of general and further education in the Education Department, Dr Ihron Rensburg, says that while an exemption remains a predictor of life chances in "current South Africa", only about 20% of matrics who pass use an exemption to continue studying. Rensburg says the exemption rate must in time be balanced with an instrument which will look at "placement rate" to determine whether schools and post-school institutions are educating people to find jobs or become self-employed. Anil Kanjee, a research director of the Human Sciences Research Council's education and training assessment studies unit, agrees. "Though everyone can't, won't and shouldn't go to university, people still strive for good exemptions. It matters to the public and to pupils." One of the first steps the department will take to monitor the quality of education from primary school level will be national literacy and numeracy testing at the end of grades 3, 6 and 9. This will help identify problems at an early enough stage to solve them. The list of high-achieving schools shows vast differences in fees. Whereas many schools which charge high fees didn't make the list, others show that they used their financial resources to offer the best opportunities. On the other hand, some very poor schools, charging as little as a R100 a year and working with pupils from deprived socio-economic backgrounds, are working wonders. Rensburg says public schools' fees are important as it shows how schools spend their money and that even poor schools can deliver. These lessons could also be used at other schools. Though the list features independent schools, it does not include the bulk of them as they wrote the Independent Examinations Board exam. The national executive director of the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa, Dr Jane Hofmeyr, says 68 schools wrote the IEB's senior certificate and 49 (72%) of them achieved a university entrance pass rate of more than 80%. The Catholic Institute says 25 Catholic schools wrote the IEB exam in 1999 and 11 (44%) scored exemption rates of higher than 80%. _______________________________________________________________ First Class: The figures below show the 70 schools in South Africa which achieved the highest exemption rates in last year's matric examination. Only complete exemptions were included _______________________________________________________________ Best academic results in the 1999 matric examination
* 1999 fees Fees for day scholars only
While we have resorted this information into provinces, so that information pertaining to the Western Cape appears first, we have not changed the order of the schools as presented by the Sunday Times in its report on Sunday, 20 February. To see the original article go to http://www.suntimes.co.za/2000/02/20/news/news04.htm |
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