Progression system questioned
ALEXANDRA – Progression of under performing pupils in the spotlight.
The education system may be setting up children, who are not academically inclined, to fail through the progression system.
This was implied at Alex schools after the release of the 2017 matric results.
The progression system advances children to higher grades regardless of their performance and results in the previous grade. Many of them would have repeated their grades several times and would be much older than their classmates – even above twenty years of age in their matric year – if the progression system wasn’t in place.
School authorities said the progression system was an albatross around the necks of the affected pupils and also has a negative effect on the schools. Speaking guardedly, the principal of Kwa-Bhekilanga Secondary School, Jubere Silowa, partly attributed the drop in the pass rate at his school to the progression system.
“Most of them didn’t make it and will have to sit for supplementary exams,” he said.
East Bank Secondary School deputy principal Hector Ngxanga said while matric should be the exit level for the secondary level, children who were part of the progression system were struggling. Most of them have to do supplementary examinations and other tutorial sessions before they can receive their matric certificates at a much older age than their counterparts.
“The challenge becomes harder in higher grades and has a psychological effect on them after years of compounded failure. With low self-esteem, they sometimes avoid classes specifically designed for them,” Ngxanga said.
East Bank principal Isaac Tloloe said earlier that these scholars spent their days [being] miserable, seated next to younger classmates who performed better than them. “It is debilitating to their self-esteem. Some of them would already be under bad social influences from the outside, which they then pass on to other young pupils.”
Realogile High School principal Matthews Choshi said schools worked extra hard to ensure that these children pass. He urged parents to encourage children in the progressive system to attend all available opportunities in order to pass the grade. “We urge them to attend lessons after school and [during] weekends at their former schools. “We will provide all [the] necessary books,” Choshi said.
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