The 2010 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results show a marked improvement in the mathematics and physical science results achieved at Dinaledi schools compared to previous years, despite recent media reports suggesting otherwise.
The primary objective of the Dinaledi School project is to ensure that selected schools are supported to significantly increase the participation and performance of learners, especially African and girl learners, in mathematics and physical science. Since the project’s inception in 2002 with 102 schools, the project has been expanded to 500 schools in all nine provinces. This number includes 18 schools that were adopted by the Department of Science and Technology as part of the Adopt-A-School initiative.
The 2010 NSC results show that while the number of learners enrolled for Mathematics and Physical Science has generally been declining, there have been improvements in the pass rates achieved at Dinaledi Schools.
Dinaledi schools contributed 47 760 of the 263 034 learners who wrote Mathematics in the 2010 NSC examinations, with 27 109 (57 percent) of these Dinaledi learners achieving a pass. Dinaledi learners also accounted for 32 percent of the total number of learners who achieved more than 50 percent for Maths, which is considered a pass at the previous higher grade level in the old senior certificate.
The programme has seen notable improvements over the last three years with the 2010 results showing that the bulk of these schools (309) produced between 50 and 99 learners who passed mathematics, up from 198 schools in 2008 and 168 the following year.
In physical science, 36861 of the 205364 NSC candidates were at Dinaledi schools, and of these 21925 achieved a pass. More than a third of these candidates achieved between 60 to 69 percent.
Recent media reports suggesting that the system was not achieving its objectives looked only at the 18 schools adopted by the Department of Science Technology (DST) and not at the system as a whole. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has initiated plans to support these underperforming schools through monitoring and resource provision to produce the number and the quality of learners as required.
The 2010 results also show that, despite the trend of lower enrolment for these two key subjects, the number of learners achieving passes of 50 percent and more has increased, which suggests an improvement in the quality of passes.
Analysis of the results show 57 percent of learners passing mathematics in Dinaledi schools in the 2010 NSC examinations, while 59 percent of candidates passed physical science, both well above the national average of both of these subjects. This provides further confirmation that the system is on track to achieving its objective of improving maths and physical science results.
Report: http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/docs/2011/dinaledi.pdf
Source: Department of Basic Education
