Question No. 216
Mr AM Mpontshane (Inkatha Freedom Party) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:
(1) Whether her department is taking any steps to reduce the high failure rate in the matric supplementary exams; if not, (a) why not; if so, (a) what steps?
Reply:
1. Yes. The Department of Basic Education is focused on improving learner performance inall examinations administered by the department.
However, it needs to be mentioned that performance in a supplementary examination cannot be compared to performance in themain examination, since the supplementary examination is written by candidates who havefailed to meet the requirements in the first attempt provided.
However, the Department of Basic Education makes available to these candidates past question papers and exemplar question papers together with their memoranda.
The Department of Basic Education has a special web site (Thutong) which provides a range of support material that includes past question papers, examination guidelines, previous copies of the Study Mate series and the Sunday Times questions and answers series.
Additional support is also provided through SENTEC sites of learning as well as programmes broadcast by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) (radio andtelevision) and MINDSET.
The teachers at the schools at which the candidates have registered are also available to support these candidates. However, many candidates take it for granted that they are acquainted with the examination and therefore not much additional effort is put into the preparation for this examination.
I have requested my department to ensure that in preparation for the 2011 supplementary examination, candidates are encouraged to take advantage of the support that is available and where such support is not available, it must be initiated and sustained.
Source: Department of Education
Reply by Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, on questions posed in the National Assembly for oral reply
