Edited by Vijay Reddy
COLLOQUIUM PROCEEDINGS
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Published by HSRC Press
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© 2006 Human Sciences Research Council
First published 2006
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Contents
List of tables and figures v
Foreword ix
Introduction xii
Acknowledgements xx
List of abbreviations and acronyms xxi
SECTION 1: THE MACRO PERSPECTIVE
1. A review of ten years of assessment and examinations 3
Themba Ndhlovu, Nkosi Sishi and Carol Nuga Deliwe
2. Transition from Senior Certificate to the Further Education and
Training Certificate 10
Morgan Naidoo
3. The history of falling matric standards 18
Peliwe Lolwana
SECTION 2: STANDARDS AND STANDARDISATION
4. The matriculation examination: how can we find out if standards
are falling? 33
Mbithi wa Kivilu
5. The statistical adjustment of matric marks 45
L Paul Fatti
6. Evaluating the school-leaving examination against measurement
principles and methods 58
Cheryl D Foxcroft

7. Comparing and standardising performance trends in the matric
examinations using a matrix sampling design 72
Anil Kanjee
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8. Methodological issues in measuring learner flow-through in the
education system 90
Fabian Arends
SECTION 3: DISAGGREGATED DATA ILLUSTRATING INEQUALITIES
9. Gender and educational achievement in South Africa 107
Helen Perry and Brahm Fleisch
10. Matric matters 127
Michael Kahn
11. A trend analysis of matric maths performance 139
Vijay Reddy and Servaas van der Berg with Likani Lebani and
Robert Berkowitz
12. The matric results of 2002 and 2003: the uncomfortable truths of the
Western Cape? 161
Peter Kallaway
SECTION 4: ISSUES IMPACTING ON EDUCATION
13. Learning (dis)advantage in matriculation language classrooms 185
Jeanne Prinsloo
14. Many are called, few will remain: HIV/AIDS and the matric in the South
African school system 201
Relebohile Moletsane
15. Listening to matric teachers: township realities and learner
achievement levels 213
Makola Collin Phurutse
16. Matric improvement programmes 228
Jennifer Rault-Smith
SECTION 5: THE FUTURE

17. The Further Education and Training Certificate: unresolved problems 241
Stephanie Matseleng Allais
18. Pathways from matric 253
Michael Cosser
Contributors 263
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v
List of tables and figures
Tables
Table 2.1 Number of candidates who wrote, those who passed and those
who passed with exemption from 1996 to 2003
13
Table 5.1 Flow-through rates for Grades 11 and 12 47
Table 5.2 Number of candidates presenting for Standard Grade and
Higher Grade examinations 48
Table 5.3 Accounting Higher Grade mark distributions and adjustments 51
Table 5.4 English Second Language Higher Grade marks and
adjustments 53
Table 5.5 Numbers and pass rates, 1990 to 2003 56
Table 6.1 Correlations: final first-year marks, Swedish Points, and
weighted matriculation average mark 60
Table 6.2 Matric and academic performance: correlations for gender and
cultural groups 63
Table 6.3 Score equivalence across examinations 67
Table 6.4 Example of score equating table 67
Table 7.1 Matric pass rates: 1997 to 2003 79
Table 8.1 Promotion, repetition and drop-out rates in public ordinary
schools in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, 2002 98
Table 9.1 Number of candidates, passes and endorsements and Gender
Parity Index (GPI), 1996 to 2002 112

Table 9.2 Number of candidates gaining merit and distinction by gender,
2001 and 2002 114
Table 9.3 Number of candidates and aggregate mark obtained by
candidates who failed and who passed, with and without
endorsement, 2002 115
Table 9.4 Female and male candidates’ aggregate marks by percentile,
2002 116
Table 9.5 Provincial number of candidates and aggregate mark obtained
by candidates who failed and who passed with and without
endorsement, 2002 118
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Table 9.6 Number of candidates and aggregate mark obtained by those
who failed and passed with or without endorsement, by race,
2002 119
Table 9.7 Number of Mathematics candidates and passes, average annual
growth and pass rates by gender, 1996 and 2002 121
Table 9.8 Number of Physical Science candidates and passes, average
annual growth and pass rates by gender, 1996 and 2002 122
Table 9.9 Higher Grade Mathematics candidates, number and percentage
passing by race and gender, 2002 123
Table 9.10 Higher Grade Physical Science candidates, number passing and
percentage pass rate by race and gender, 2002 123
Table 10. 1 Mathematics and Physical Science performance by group,
1991 127
Table 10.2 Mathematics HG enrolment (000s) and performance: All and
Language Proxy Method, 1999 to 2001 131
Table 10.3 Mathematics Language Proxy Method, by gender and
province 131

Table 10.4 Mathematics Higher Grade African candidates 2002 and
2003 132
Table 10.5 Mathematics Higher Grade for Language Proxy Method, non-
language African and African, by province (2003) 132
Table 10.6 Passes in bands A to C, African candidates, 2002 and 2003 135
Table 11.1 Modified Swedish system 142
Table 11.2 Public schools offering Maths at matric level, in 2003 in
Gauteng and Free State, by former racial departments and
poverty rankings 143
Table 11.3 Maths participation in public schools offering Maths in
Gauteng and Free State 144
Table 11.4 Higher Grade Maths participation in Gauteng and Free
State 145
Table 11.5 Schools offering only Standard Grade Maths in Gauteng and
Free State 146
Table 11.6 Number of Higher Grade Maths A, B, C and D symbols in
Gauteng and Free State for the years 1998, 2001 and 2003 147
Table 11.7 Classification of Gauteng and Free State schools in terms of
performance regarding university Maths eligibility 153
MARKING MATRIC: COLLOQUIUM PROCEEDINGS
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INTRODUCTION
vii
Table 11.8 Performance regarding university Maths eligibility by school
classification, 1998, 2001 and 2003 154
Table 11.9 Categorising Dinaledi schools in Gauteng and Free State, 1998
to 2003 156
Table 11.10 Dinaledi schools in Gauteng and Free State: Performance in
terms of university eligibility for Maths 156
Table 12.1 National Senor Certificate pass rates: 1994 to 2003 161

Table 12.2 Western Cape Senior Certificate examination results 2001:
type of pass 167
Table 12.3 Senior Certificate results for 2002 to 2003: prestige Cape Town
and Stellenbosch schools 169
Table 12.4 Senior Certificate results for 2002 and 2003: Cape Town
suburban schools 172
Table 12.5 Senior Certificate results for 2002 and 2003: working-class
schools in coloured and African areas in the vicinity of
Cape Town 174
Table 12.6 Senior Certificate results for 2002 and 2003: rural town
(Malmesbury) 176
Table 16.1 Selection of schools with pass rates of under 40 per cent in
1998 235
Table 18.1 2002 study and work status of learners who were in Grade 12
in 2001 255
Table 18.2 2002 majority-time occupation of learners who were in Grade 12
in 2001 256
Figures
Figure 5.1 Ogives for Accounting Higher Grade 52
Figure 5.2 Ogives for English Second Language Higher Grade 54
Figure 6.1 Impact of using revised criteria based on matriculation
performance 61
Figure 6.2 Risk profiles of directly and tested admitted learners 64
Figure 6.3 Percentages per risk profile of directly and tested admitted
learners 65
Figure 6.4 Weighted matriculation average mark means: 1999 to 2003
examinations 66
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
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viii

Figure 7.1 National trend in matric pass rates and endorsements: 1997 to
2003 80
Figure 7.2 Comparisons that account for changes implemented from
2001 81
Figure 7.3 Comparison of total, Maths and Science pass rates: 1997
to 2002 81
Figure 7.4 Matrix sampling: Common anchor item design 84
Figure 8.1 Movement of learners into and out of school 96
Figure 8.2 Basic assumptions of the Grade Transition Model 97
Figure 8.3 Flow of pupils from Grade 1 in 1991 to Grade 12 in 2002 99
Figure 9.1 Number of male and female learners by grade, 2000 110
Figure 9.2 Male and female enrolment in the SCE, 1996 to 2002 111
Figure 9.3 Gender pass rates and endorsement rates,1996 to 2002 113
Figure 9.4 Provincial average aggregate for female and male candidates
passing and candidates gaining an exemption, 2002 117
Figure 11.1 Maths school quality index, for Gauteng in 2003, by former
department 148
Figure 11.2 Maths school quality index, for Free State in 2003, by former
department 149
Figure 11.3 Change in school quality index over time (1999, 2003) for
Gauteng ex-DET and ex-HoA schools 150
Figure 11.4 Change in school quality index over time (1999, 2003) for Free
State ex-DET and ex-HoA schools 151
Figure 16.1 Biggs’ SOLO Taxonomy: A general framework for systematically
assessing quality of learner learning 237
Figure 18.1 The effect of subject achievement on learner destination,
2002 258
MARKING MATRIC: COLLOQUIUM PROCEEDINGS
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ix

Foreword
It has long been persuasively demonstrated that the ways in which schooling is
provided in society generally have the effect of reproducing social inequality,
in the course of meeting the differentiated conditions of employment and
reward that obtain under capitalist production. This process tends to occur in
unexpected ways even where a progressive government might seek to achieve
otherwise. In South Africa under apartheid, the white-minority government
deliberately and cynically steered the process by means of the racially
segregated and inferior Bantu Education system, to achieve and regulate the
selective underdevelopment of black learners throughout the country, and
especially in rural, so-called ‘homeland’ areas.
Following the political demise of apartheid in 1994, the new ANC-led black-
majority government, the business sector, civil society, academia and the
public are agreed in attempting to undo the damage and reverse the process.
Concerted investment in education is seen as critical for the equitable and
sustainable socio-economic development of the country. It is intended to
achieve increased access to education opportunities across previous barriers
of race, class and region; improved quality in the provision of education;
and thereby better retention of learners in the educational system and better
output standards and volumes.
Whether in the popular awareness of learners and their parents, the
conceptions of educators and educational specialists, or the interventions of
policy-makers, a key indicator of the functioning and consequent outcomes
of the schooling system has been the performance of learners in the exit
level examination at the end of Grade 12, the matriculation examination.
There are understandable reasons for this. At the level of the individual
learner, performance in the examination will powerfully affect his or her
opportunities for further education or entry into the labour market. At the
level of the schooling system the overall matric results, and the differences by
province, subject, and race group, provide telling and sometimes controversial

evidence of differences in the efficacy of provision. At the national level the
results are an annual reflection of whether government is making headway in
its dual educational agenda of improving equity in educational opportunities
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MARKING MATRIC: COLLOQUIUM PROCEEDINGS
x
and outcomes at the same time as producing the necessary levels and mixes
of skills needed by the economy in order to improve employment and
productivity and reduce poverty.
So, as the Introduction notes, the stakes can hardly be higher. As a result, there
have been fierce – if sporadic – debates in the public domain in recent years
about the meaning of the matric pass rates, the predictive power of the matric
results for admission to higher education, and the processes underlying
the evident changes. At the same time, there is still uncertainty about the
purpose of the exit level examination: is it a certificate which indicates what a
learner knows and can do; should it be used for admission to tertiary studies;
and does it predict future performance? The multilevel debates are often
collapsed into simplistic issues. Then confidence in the education system,
or lack of it, is projected onto the exit examination. For instance, the higher
education community has announced that from 2008 it will administer its
own admission test.
This constellation of analyses and implications, and the complicated
educational and social processes they involve, may be called ‘the matric
question’. The question is obviously one of continuing public and specialist
interest; yet attention to it has tended to flare up only briefly when each
year’s results are published, and then subside until the next year. In 2004 the
HSRC accordingly decided to remedy this deficiency and make ‘the matric’
one of two HSRC-wide projects for the 2004/2005 year. An initial thrust of
the project was to convene a broad range of informed stakeholders – located
in government, science councils, statutory bodies and academia – for a

colloquium on the major aspects of the question. The HSRC appreciates their
ready and vigorous engagement. Their contributions comprise the remainder
of this volume, and there is an overview in the Introduction.
The macro-trends in the education system over recent years provide a mixed
background to the more detailed and technical analyses. On the one hand
there have been real improvements in important prerequisites of improved
provision and output, such as the qualifications of teachers, teacher : pupil
ratios, infrastructure, and management. These have been achieved at the same
time as greatly improved access across the race groups, and diminished overall
inequality between urban and rural areas and among the nine provinces. On
the other hand, the focus in recent years on improving the matric pass-rate,
without an adequate specifying and monitoring of cognate targets, has had
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xi
some unintended and undesirable consequences, such as schools preventing
marginal pupils from attempting matric; or pressuring them to be examined
at the standard rather than the higher grade, thereby jeopardising their access
to higher education and constricting the supply of strategic skills such as
Higher Grade Mathematics.
Overall, it turns out that the gap of performance between schools that were
previously advantaged and those that were disadvantaged, although showing
some improvements, still remains distressingly wide; and while the former
House of Administration (white) schools are increasingly racially mixed,
the former Department of Education and Training (DET) schools remain
predominantly black, and especially African. The implication of this difference
is that the learners exiting from the two types of schools still have, in the
aggregate, predictably different subsequent life chances and trajectories.
At this time South Africa is moving towards the introduction of a new exit
examination. It is therefore an ideal moment to take stock of what occurred
under the matric dispensation, and why in order to derive what can be

learned towards ensuring that the new arrangements are more effective in
countering the unintended contrary developments noted above, thereby
exerting a beneficial influence on the ability of the education system to meet
dynamic societal requirements. That is the underlying focus of this collection
of the contributions to the HSRC’s colloquium on ‘the matric question’.
The five sections of the book interrogate the nature of assessment that the
matric involves, the standards entailed, the challenges of measurement and
adjustment, the consequences in our specific context, and possible future
scenarios for the new approach. The HSRC hopes in this way to continue to
advance its mandate of both undertaking and fostering social science that
makes a difference, in the important educational domain.
Dr FM Orkin
CEO, HSRC
July 2005
FOREWORD
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xii
Introduction
Vijay Reddy
In the previous ten years, there have been many changes in South African
education: the creation of a single Department of Education (DoE); common
Grade 12 examinations for learners in public schools; and a new outcomes-
based curriculum which was introduced to learners in the General Education
and Training (GET) phase in 1998 and will be introduced to learners in the
Further Education and Training (FET) phase from 2006. The South African
public, politicians, policy-makers and researchers still use learner achievement
in the various learning areas as the indicator of the success of these changes.
South Africa has participated in cross-national comparative studies in
Mathematics, Science, Literacy and Life Skills. Some of these studies are the
‘Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study’ (TIMSS) at Grade 8

level; the ‘Monitoring Learning Achievement’ (MLA) study at Grade 4 level;
and the study by the Southern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational
Quality (SACMEQ) at Grade 6 level. The National Education Policy Act of
1996 stipulates monitoring and evaluation of the education system, and
in 2001 Grade 3 learners were tested in Numeracy, Literacy and Life Skills.
In 2004 Grade 6 learners were tested in Mathematics, Science and Literacy.
Provincial Departments of Education have also conducted assessment studies.
Despite the many achievement studies and performance in these assessments,
the Grade 12 exit level qualification – the matriculation examination –
still captures the imagination of policy-makers, politicians, academics and
the public.
The matriculation examination is a visible, high profile and public indicator
of learner achievement. Every year parents, learners, teachers, researchers,
government officials, policy-makers, and the general public get involved in
the debate around the matriculation examination, with the most frequently
asked questions being: Did the pass rate go up? Are standards dropping? Are
the results real or have they been manipulated? How is our education system
doing? Are we meeting the development goals? And the new question is: What
should the matriculation examination of the future look like?
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xiii
The matriculation examination is a ‘high stakes’ examination. At the level of
the learner (and the parent) the certificate gained in the examination will play
a major role in determining the subsequent life trajectory of the individual.
The learner is interested in the symbols (or marks) reflected on the certificate.
For schools and teachers the results are considered as a reflection of the
outcome of both the professional and learner inputs. At a systemic level, the
results are seen as a reflection of the health of the provincial and national
education system.
In 1996 the first non-ethnic, provincially based Senior Certificate

Examinations (SCE) were written. In the early years the debates in the
newspapers were about examination paper leakages and cheating during
the examination. The initial challenge for the DoE was to ensure smooth
operational and administrative arrangements. The 1999 SCE recorded the
lowest pass rate, at 49 per cent. As a consequence, there were many intervention
strategies in schools (especially poorly performing schools) and a call from
the then Minister of Education, Kader Asmal, for a 5 per cent increase in pass
rates in the following years. From the year 2000 onwards, there has been an
increase in Senior Certificate pass rates, with the highest pass rate, of 73 per
cent, recorded in 2003. More recent debates in the public domain have been
about the quality of the pass rates and whether the increased pass rate in the
SCE is an indication of improvement in the quality of the system or whether it
was manipulated, either by holding back learners in Grade 11 or encouraging
more learners to take standard grade subjects.
Analysis of two sets of statistics provided by the DoE reveal the following
trends in the education system. Firstly, in 1996 and 1997 the percentage
flowthrough from Grade 11 to Grade 12 was 85 per cent and 89 per cent
respectively. More recently however, this has dropped and in 2001 and 2002,
the percentage flowthrough from Grade 11 to Grade 12 was 73 per cent and
77 per cent respectively. Secondly, in 1991 there were 408 468 Senior
Certificate candidates in the public school system, and although this number
increased to 559 233 in 1997, it dropped to 440 267 in 2003. In the same
period the total number of Mathematics candidates increased from 135 659
in 1991 to 231 312 in 1997 and to 258 323 in 2003. This increased participation
rate in Mathematics is to be commended. However, there is concern
when we analyse the number of Mathematics Higher Grade (HG) candidates
– in 1991 there were 53 631 Mathematics HG candidates (constituting
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MARKING MATRIC: COLLOQUIUM PROCEEDINGS
xiv

40 per cent of all Mathematics candidates and 13 per cent of the total number
of Senior Certificate candidates); in 1997 there were 67 744 Mathematics
HG candidates (constituting 30 per cent of all Mathematics candidates and
12 per cent of Senior Certificate candidates) and in 2003 this number dropped
to 35 959 candidates (constituting 14 per cent of all Mathematics candidates
and 8 per cent of all Senior Certificate candidates). Thus, while Mathematics
participation has increased, the number of learners who will constitute the
pool for entry into key professions is very limited.
The matriculation examination in the form that we know it is on the way out.
The last Senior Certificate examination in its present form will be written at
the end of 2007. From 2006, Grade 10 learners will follow the new curriculum
(National Curriculum Statements for Grades 10 to 12), which is underpinned
by the Outcomes Based Education (OBE) philosophy. The Grade 12 cohort
of 2008 will write an external examination and learners will graduate from
Grade 12 with the Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC) (there
has been an amendment to this – see last paragraph).
In writing this introduction after reading the papers in this collection, policy
documents and academic analyses relating to assessment, I am struck by
three trends:
• Firstly, the importance of history, and a reminder that the debates are
not new; they have surfaced in different forms at different times (but
does history teach us anything?). There has always been debate and
contestation around assessment and examination. The difference may be
that now the debate also happens in the public domain and the form and
tone of these debates influence public perceptions of, and confidence in
the examination and education system.
• Secondly, the assessment issues debated in South Africa – standards,
validity, centralisation or decentralisation, predictive value – are not
unique to this time period or to this country. For example, there has
been analysis by Mitchell, Fridjhon and Haupt (1997) and Zietsman and

Gering (1986) on the predictive value of matriculation examinations for
university admission since the 1980s. This debate has continued with
the tertiary institutions proposing the National Benchmark Tests Project
as a norm for admission to higher education.
1
The tension between
examinations marking an exit from the schooling system and entry into
university occurs in many countries. Bakker and Wolf, in an editorial in
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INTRODUCTION
xv
Assessment in Education, write that ‘the political visibility and sensitivity
associated with upper-secondary examining has been increasing
everywhere’ (2001: 286).
• Thirdly, our progress seems to follow a circular route – things seem
to change and then we come back to where we started. The pass rate
in the 1996 SCE was 54 per cent. In 1997 the pass rate dropped to
47 per cent. This prompted a national outcry from several sectors of the
South African community. ‘The nation began to question the quality
of schooling and the examination process.’
2
In 2003 the pass rate was
73 per cent – the nation questioned the quality and integrity of the
examinations process. One can examine these changes in relation to the
trends in higher grade and standard grade participation. The Ministerial
Committee that investigated the poor examination results of the 1997
SCE examined the issue of higher and standard grade. There were two
points of view of this subject. On the one hand there was the feeling
that, with the high failure rate in subjects like Mathematics HG, learners
should take Standard Grade (SG) Mathematics. On the other hand there

was the feeling that the learners’ inability to perform is caused by some
failure of the system and that there should be improvements in teacher
preparation, support materials, and the culture of learning and teaching.
The Umalusi report (2004) that investigated these changes suggested that
one of the reasons for the change in pass rates is the increasing number
of learners taking the subject on the standard grade, and the fact that it
is not clear what level of competence should be displayed by learners.
The debates after the release of the 2003 examination concluded that
many learners had been encouraged to take Mathematics (and other
subjects) on the standard grade and this had led to a false reflection of
the quality of the education system. Furthermore, the fact that very few
learners are taking Mathematics HG means that the human resource
capability is compromised. The key challenge now is to increase the
number of learners taking Mathematics HG (and in the new curriculum
ensuring that more learners take the subject Mathematics rather than
Mathematical Literacy).
The debate about exit level examinations is in the public domain. To deepen
this discussion the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) adopted the
Matric Project as an institution-wide project, supported from the office of the
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Chief Executive Officer. The HSRC hosted a colloquium in November 2004,
with participants from government (national and provincial), the Council for
Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi)
and academics (from universities and the HSRC). Eighteen papers (which
form the basis of the colloquium proceedings) were presented. The day
was characterised by robust and healthy debate. In the debate there was the
recognition that the responsibilities of researchers and government officials
are different – government has the responsibility of delivering services

without the time to reflect on what is happening, and researchers have the
responsibility and the time to reflect on and analyse these issues.
The eighteen papers presented in this collection are divided into five
sections. The first section presents a macro-perspective relating to assessment,
particularly the matriculation examination. The papers (insider accounts by
Ndhlovu, Sishi and Nuga Deliwe, and by Naidoo) describe and review the
different phases of the assessment reform, particularly the SCE, in the last ten
years, and present a history of examinations in this country. Lolwana provides
an historical account of how the question of matriculation standards has
been treated in South Africa since the start of the Joint Matriculation Board
(JMB) in 1918. The paper points to the history of controlling the SCE during
the periods of the JMB (1918–1992), the South African Certification Council
(SAFCERT) (1992–2001) and Umalusi (2002–present). The analyses point to
the challenges of improving the quality of the education system.
What is quality of the education system and how do we measure it? The second
section, of five papers, raises the questions of standards and standardisation –
terms routinely used in any discussion about examinations. Yet there is a whole
methodological theory that underpins the meaning of these terms. Mbithi wa
Kivilu provides an explanation of what educational standards are and reviews
the major methods in setting standards. The author raises questions about
what standards are, how we define standards of the education system and how
we look at equivalence of standards across different systems. The process of
the statistical adjustment of marks has been ‘blamed’ for the increase in the
pass rates of the matriculation examination. Fatti, who chairs the Statistics
Task Team of Umalusi, describes the statistical adjustment process which is
used for the standardisation of the matric mark distributions. Included in his
paper is a description of the motivation and history for statistical adjustment.
Fatti illustrates (using the Accounting HG and English Second Language
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INTRODUCTION

xvii
HG papers) how the statistical adjustment took place in the matriculation
examination of 2003. Kanjee problematises, from a methodological point
of view, the comparability of learner performance across different years and
across the provinces. In other words, is there any equivalence and basis for
comparability of the different examinations? Kanjee concludes by providing
a proposal by which the matriculation examination can both provide
information about what learners know and can do and be used to ensure
equivalence across the different years. In evaluating an education system, we
often use numerical data. This numerical data itself could be problematic.
Arends provides insights into the methodological issues in defining indicators
of educational quality and measuring quality of the education system. Using
national and international literature, the author provides an overview of
different ways of measuring the quality of education and looks at how it can
be combined to be used optimally. The predictive value of the matriculation
examination for admission to Higher Education (HE) institutions continues
to be one of the ‘hotly debated’ topics amongst academics and government
officials. Foxcroft uses data gathered from first-year intakes over the past
few years to illustrate some of the current measurement deficiencies when
admission is based on the matriculation examination results. She also
provides suggestions of how the FETC examinations could avoid some of the
measurement pitfalls inherent in the matriculation examination, so that these
results could have better usage for admission to HE institutions.
Four empirically based papers disaggregate the matriculation achievement
data by race and gender to illustrate the inequalities of learner performance,
which in turn is linked to inequalities in society. South Africa is a highly
stratified country and a single aggregate statistic masks the different realities.
It is important to disaggregate achievement data and, because of the South
African history, a key disaggregation variable is race. From 1992, the DoE did
not collect matriculation data by race. However, it was acknowledged that race

was still an important factor in describing inequalities and, from 2002, learners
writing the matriculation examination identified themselves by race. Perry and
Fleisch present the result of an in-depth study of female education achievement
in the South African SCE. Kahn explores disparities of performance in matric
Mathematics through analysis of the SCE results. Because the matriculation
examination had not recorded the race of individuals, Kahn uses the
Language Proxy Method (LPM) to determine the number of African graduates
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with Mathematics passes from the schooling system. This method provided
information on how race and class influence access. Reddy et al. report on the
trend analysis of matric Mathematics performance over a six year period. This
study uses the school, as an institution, as the focus on the analysis. Kallaway
provides an analysis of the matric performance of Western Cape schools,
disaggregated by the variable of previous education departments. Each of
the analyses illustrates the growing inequalities within the education system.
Schools that were the high performers during the apartheid years still remain
high performers. The performance gap between schools, measured by ex-
racial department, has not narrowed.
The fourth section illuminates issues not often made explicit, that affect the
quality of education. Prinsloo focuses on language curriculum practices that
have become naturalised over the decades. The argument presented in the
paper contends that to enable effective change, it is essential to understand
better what has historically constituted literacy practices and to recognise their
social, cultural and economic implications. Moletsane draws attention to the
fact that very little attention is paid to the impact of HIV/AIDS on the education
system in general and on matric in particular. The paper raises a number of
questions of how teaching and learning could and should be constructed to
deal with HIV/AIDS issues and how government should respond with respect

to its research, policy and practice agendas. Phurutse foregrounds the voices
of teachers in understanding learner performance and provides an analysis
of teachers’ views about poor performance and what needs to be done. Rault-
Smith describes the initiatives of the Western Cape Education Department in
working with poorly performing schools to improve their results.
The papers in the fifth section point to some future scenarios: what happens
to learners after gaining a Senior Certificate, and what of the FETC? Cosser
draws on research on Student Choice Behaviour, which traced a cross-section
of learners, a year after completing the matriculation examination, to ascertain
their destinations (enter HE, proceed to other FET institutions, or enter the
labour market). By considering learner pathways from matric, the paper sheds
light on the value of the Senior Certificate as a passport to further endeavours.
On the other hand, Allais explores problems in the FET band with qualification
reform itself. The focus is on the new FETC, as the proposed new exit level
qualification in the FET band. The relationship between qualifications in this
part of the system has been a particularly difficult issue to resolve.
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INTRODUCTION
xix
This collection of eighteen papers should be valuable to academics and policy-
makers. It is hoped that it will contextualise the current debates historically
and internationally. Hopefully, having read the text, interested parties will
understand the meaning of the statistics and standards in the methodological
frameworks from which they are derived. What will also emerge from a
reading of the various analyses in the collection is that, while there have been
many initiatives for the improvement of education, after ten years the gap
between the schools of the previously advantaged and disadvantaged has not
narrowed. Inequalities persist, and most affected are the poorest learners.
This colloquium was held in November 2004 and already events have
overtaken some of the discussions presented in this collection. There has

been an amendment to the policy for the FETC, Grades 10 to 12 (General)
and to the policy for assessment at the Grade 10 to 12 levels. Also, in August
2005 the Minister of Education announced the policy for the National Senior
Certificate (NSC) at Level 4 of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).
The Minister has used the terminology of the present assessment system and
we await the first new National Senior Certificate in 2008 to see if the form
is the same.
Notes
1 Yeld N, ‘Failed by Stale Tests’, Financial Mail, 9 September 2005.
2 Government Gazette, 7 May 1999.
References
Bakker S & Wolf A (2001) Editorial: Examinations and entry to university: Pressure and
change in a mass system, Assessment in Education 8(3).
Mitchell G, Fridjhon P & Haupt J (1997) On the relationship between the matriculation
examination and university performance in South Africa 1980–1991, South African
Journal of Science 93 (9): 382–386.
Umalusi (2004) Investigation into the standard of the Senior Certificate Examination –
A report on research conducted by Umalusi. Pretoria: Umalusi.
Zietsman A & Gering M (1986) Admission to university in an academically non-homog-
enous society, Higher Education 15 (1/2): 25–35.
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xx
Acknowledgements
It was January and Linda Chisholm and I, like most other South Africans,
were discussing the matriculation examination. The gist of our discussion was
that we needed to have an in-depth, systematic and evidence-based discussion
around the often emotional issues of the ‘matric exams’. The then CEO of the
HSRC, Mark Orkin, heard of our discussions and in keeping with the HSRC
mission to do social science research that makes a difference, supported the
idea of an HSRC-wide research project which would engage with a social issue

of importance to the majority of South Africans.
The Matric Project brought together research conducted in five HSRC
Research Programmes: Assessment Technology and Education Evaluation
(ATEE) (the project home), Child, Youth and Family Development (CYFD),
Human Resource Development (HRD), Knowledge Management (KM) and
Surveys, Analyses, Modelling and Mapping (SAMM). We also knew that a
number of researchers were already working on various aspects related to the
matric examination. We saw it as timely to bring the work together through a
colloquium. And so the project Marking Matric was born.
In this acknowledgement I need to thank various people for participating in
discussions, supporting the idea and seeing the completion of the project.
• Mark Orkin for seeing the potential of such a project and because of its
significance in national debates, supporting it as an HSRC-wide project;
• Linda Chisholm for her insightful discussions at the start of the project
and contributions in its conceptualisation;
• The research programmes, ATEE, HRD, KM and SAMM for contributions
to the colloquium;
• The various contributors for their insightful papers which make this
collection;
• The participants at the colloquium for the robust and supportive debates;
• Carla Pheiffer for efficiently managing the project;
• Santhana Gengiah for assisting in getting the manuscript to publication.
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INTRODUCTION
xxi
List of abbreviations and acronyms
ABET Adult Basic Education and Training
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
ANC African National Congress
APAP Admissions and Placement Assessment Programme

BTT HSRC Birth To Twenty Study
C2005 Curriculum 2005
CALP Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
CASS Continuous Assessment
CEPD Centre for Education Policy Development
CFO Chief Financial Officer
CNE Christian National Education
COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions
CTP Council of Technikon Principals
DET Department of Education and Training
DoE Department of Education
DoL Department of Labour
DST Department of Science and Technology
DTI Department of Trade and Industry
EFA Education For All
EMIS Education Management Information System
ESL English Second Language
FET Further Education and Training
FETC (General) Further Education and Training Certificate (General)
FETC (Vocational) Further Education and Training Certificate (Vocational)
FETQA Further Education and Training Quality Assurance
FRD Foundation for Research and Development
GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education
GDP Gross Domestic Product
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MARKING MATRIC: COLLOQUIUM PROCEEDINGS
xxii
GEAR Growth, Employment and Redistribution
GERD Gross Expenditure on Research and Development
GET General Education and Training

GTM Grade Transition Model (also called the Reconstructed
Cohort Model)
HE Higher Education
HEMIS Higher Education Information Management
Information System
HG Higher Grade
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus
HoA House of Assembly
HSRC Human Sciences Research Council
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IDS Individualised Data System
IEB Independent Examinations Board
IRT Item Response Theory
JMB Joint Matriculation Board
LAMP Learner Achievement Monitoring Project /Programme
LG Lower Grade
LPM Language Proxy Method
MBA Masters in Business Administration
MLA Monitoring Learning Achievements
MPC Ministerial Project Committee
NCHE National Commission on Higher Education
NCS National Curriculum Statement
NED Natal Education Department
NEPI National Education Policy Investigation
NER Net Enrolment Rate
NGO Non-governmental organisation
NLA Non-Language African
NQF National Qualifications Framework
NSA National Skills Authority
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xxiii
NSF National Skills Fund
OBE Outcomes Based Education
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
OFSTED Office for Standards in Education
RDP Reconstruction and Development Programme
R&D Research and Development
SACMEQ Southern African Consortium for Monitoring
Educational Quality
SACP South African Communist Party
SADTU South African Democratic Teachers’ Union
SAFCERT South African Certification Council
SAIDE South African Institute for Distance Education
SAMMI South African Matric Monitoring and
Intervention system
SAQA South African Qualifications Authority
SAUVCA South African Universities Vice-Chancellors Association
SCE Senior Certificate Examination
SE Standard Error
SES Socio-economic status
SET Science, Engineering and Technology
SETAs Sector Education and Training Authorities
SG Standard Grade
SME Science, Maths, English
SOLO Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes
SYSTEM Students and Youth into Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics
TELP Tertiary Education Linkages Project
TIMSS Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
Umalusi Statutory body: quality assurer in the General and

Further Education and Training bands
UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDs
UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organization
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
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UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UPE University of Port Elizabeth
WCED Western Cape Education Department
WHO World Health Organization
WMAM Weighted Matriculation Average Mark
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1
Section 1
THE MACRO PERSPECTIVE
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