ActionSA believes that Gauteng Premier and former Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi, is attempting to distract the South African public from the continued failures of the country's public schooling system which has been plagued by reports of leaked papers and declining standards, by calling for the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) examinations to be scrapped.
The party reacted to a social media post by Lesufi on Monday where he questioned why the country was still writing different matric exams.
One country, one matric examination. In few weeks time all our matriculants will be in the same lecture rooms in the same varsity or college. Why are they still writing different matric exams as IEB or NSC is a matter that must be attended to. Everything is the same beside the…
— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) January 15, 2024
A spokesperson for Action SA James de Villiers says the IEB examinations, which achieved a nearly 100% pass rate, have become a benchmark of what can be achieved through high-quality teaching and learner support.
The party said they would scrap the 30% pass rate and replace it with a 50% pass rate to ensure all pupils pass with a good grasp of subject fields.
Meanwhile, Presidential hopeful Mmusi Maimane echoed these sentiments by calling the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination results an "annual cover-up" and a "scam".
"Where Angie tells us that based on 3 subjects at 40% and 3 subjects at 30% the pass rate is in the high 80% range.
"This is a big scam. A national pass rate should be based on one pass mark of 50% to give a real picture of the education system.
"Last year only 22% of pupils passed maths when using the correct pass mark of 50%. The truth exposes the failures of your department and your boss."
Maimane's party Build One South Africa (BOSA) launched a nationwide petition on Thursday calling for the removal of Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
The minister, who was appointed to the position in 2009, will release the NSC results on Thursday evening.
We must scrap 30% as a pass mark. We must scrap a 40% pass mark. We lie to ourselves when we say anyone who gets these grades has “passed”.
— Mmusi Maimane (@MmusiMaimane) January 17, 2024
IEB
The IEB has recorded an overall matric pass rate of 98.46% in the 2023 assessments.
The results, released at midnight, are slightly higher than the 98.42% scored by the class of 2022.
Some 88% of the private school pupils achieved a bachelor's pass.
