Angie Motshekga, on questions posed in the National Assembly

Reply by Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, on questions posed in the National Assembly for written reply

12 March 2010

Question No. 677

Mr JRB Lorimer (Democratic Alliance) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:

(1) Whether any figures on symbol distribution have been released for the 2010 national senior certificate exams; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are these figure for each (a) province and (b) district;
(2) Whether any subject averages have been released; if not, why not; if so, what are these averages for each (a) province and (b) districts?

Reply:

1. In responding to this question it is assumed that reference is being made to the 2009 national senior certificate examination and not 2010. Symbol distribution which was a feature of the old senior certificate has been replaced with a seven point grading scale which is as follows:

Rating code and rating marks

7: outstanding achievement, 80 to 100 percent
6: meritorious achievement, 70 to 79 percent
5: substantial achievement, 60 to 69 percent
4: adequate achievement, 50 to 59 percent
3: moderate achievement, 40 to 49 percent
2: elementary achievement, 30 to 39 percent
1: not achieved, 0 to 29 percent

Data on grading distribution per subject is available on the examination computer system and all provincial education departments can access this data. The Department of Basic Education published a comprehensive report on the national senior certificate results, which was released by the Minister of Basic Education, Ms A Motshekga, on 7 January 2010.

Specific data relating to grading distribution per subject, per province, per district is provided to institutions and members of the public on request. This data is attached in tables 1 and 2.

Table 1: Subject data per province
Table 2: Subject data per district

2. Subject averages are not used extensively in the analysis of subject data, since they do not provide an accurate picture of performance across the province or across the district, and is therefore not readily available.

The data that has been made available to all provincial education departments is the number and the percentage of candidates that have achieved at the 30 percent level and at the 40 percent level. This data is also included in tables 1 and 2.

Follow this link to access all tables: http://www.education.gov.za/dynamic/imgshow.aspx?id=3586

Issued by: Department of Basic Education
12 March 2010
Source: Department of Education (http://www.education.gov.za/)