Another look at the Eastern Cape NSC results

When the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, announced the National Senior Certificate results at the beginning of this year all ears were waiting to hear about Eastern Cape’s performance. As expected the largely rural province which has been plagued by disturbances towards the end of last year was at the bottom of the list. Most education analysts, commentators and even teacher union officials expressed their dismay about the performance of the province. However, the question is whether the students of the Eastern Cape really achieved that badly as portrayed by the Minister’s announcement that day. Have the analysts and company been fair to this province?

A closer scrutiny of the numbers reveals that this province has been improving on its performance since 2008. In 2009 it was only Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal which recorded an improvement in the results while other provinces were in the red. The achievement rate of Northern Cape, Limpopo and Gauteng, for instance, declined by 11, 4%, 5, 4% and 4, 5% respectively from 2008 to 2009. On the other hand, pass rates for KwaZulu Natal and Eastern Cape rose by 3, 5% and 0, 4% respectively during the same period. In 2010 this province registered a significant improvement of 7, 3% from 51, 0% in the previous year. Other provinces also showed better achievement than the previous period that year, which demonstrated that teachers and parents were more able than before in preparing learners for the National Senior Certificate.

Unfortunately the 2011 results indicate that the Eastern Cape did not perform well since the achievement is 0, 1% less than the previous year. However, if we compare this province with others it is clear that there are others that are worse. The results by provinces reveal quite clearly that it is only six provinces that showed a rise in their pass rates. Eastern Cape is the seventh province as it recorded a slight decline of 0, 1%. Although Northern Cape and KwaZulu Natal recorded achievement rates of 68, 8% and 68, 1% respectively, they are the only provinces that showed deterioration in their pass rates.