Only 14,4% of 2023 learners who started Grade 1 passed Core Maths. What’s the solution?

By Wynand van Heerden, co-founder and owner of Edify

On the face of it, the 82.9% matric pass rate for 2023 is an invitation to jump onto the bandwagon of optimism and celebrate. However, as mentioned in the Daily Maverick’s newsletter on 29 January, we need to consider that 39% of learners (450 000 in total) who started Grade 1 with this cohort didn’t matriculate.

Taking a look at STEM subjects, the 2023 matric Maths pass rate increased from 53.8% in 2020 to 55% in 2022 and 63.5% in 2023, according to the 2023 National Senior Certificate Exam Results Technical Report. This seems like an excellent improvement, especially considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; but we need to bear in mind that of the 1 153 846 learners in this cohort who started in Grade 1, only 22.7% (262 016 in total) wrote Core Maths and only 14.4% (166 337 in total) passed the subject in matric 2023 – according to the 2023 NSC Exam Results School Subject Report.

Similarly, the 2023 matric Physical Science pass rate was 76.2%; of the Grade 1 cohort, 17.9% (206 399) wrote Physical Science in matric and 13.6% (157 368) passed. The 2023 matric Life Sciences pass rate was 75.6%; of the Grade 1 cohort, 32.8% (379 024) wrote Life Sciences in matric and 28.4% (286 708) passed. The 2023 matric Accounting pass rate was 76.8%; of the Grade 1 cohort, 8.7% (100 974) wrote Accounting in matric and 6.7% (77 572) passed.

I think these results would have been far better if the majority of learners had access to extra lessons. Certainly, extra lessons help learners who are struggling, but they can help any learner who wants to improve their marks – those who want to go from a B to an A, for example, or even top achievers who want to improve their A in the 80s to a mark over 90%. Extra lessons, when conducted in the right way, can help learners reach their full potential.

I would argue that for true educational benefit, learners need to be taught understanding through practical application of a subject, not just rote learning. They need to be met and supported at whatever level they are in each subject. At Edify we motivate and inspire learners to develop a true passion for a subject, irrespective of whether they are already top of their class, or struggling.

The improvement in marks in our particular class of 2023 matrics is testament to this: the average improvement in marks from the time students joined us until their finals was 22%.

Just under 20% of our Maths students achieved marks over 90% in matric, five achieving more than 97%, and 40% of students exceeding 80%. One learner joined Edify in Grade 10 with a mark of 32% in Maths, and achieved 89% in his matric finals. Another three learners joined just after their prelim exams in 2023, and their Maths marks improved by 40% in their finals just two months later.

Almost 30% of our Science students attained over 80% and 60% of our Accountancy students scored over 80% in matric. Ninety-seven percent of our Science students who joined in Grade 10 improved in Grade 11, and further improved in Grade 12 – this is not the general trend without extra lessons. Over 50% of our Afrikaans students had more than a 12% improvement to their matric results.

We attribute our success to the quality of our teachers and a differentiated teaching model, where each learner is taught according to their specific needs. The key criteria for teachers are excellent subject knowledge, a passion for teaching, and the ability to relate to and inspire learners.

Many of our teachers have a degree in a subject or profession such as advanced mathematics, engineering, genetics, chemistry, physiology, accountancy, or similar, along with a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. This gives them a wealth of knowledge outside the realm of education and allows them to bring real-life examples into the classroom. They are able to make the subject they’re teaching relatable – resulting in our students’ marks and motivation increasing by leaps and bounds.

We would very much like to see South Africa’s entire education system improve in a similar fashion. However, our sphere of influence is relatively small within South Africa’s large education sector (four schools in Gauteng and a new school in Claremont, Cape Town), with most of our students coming from private schools. We do our part to help uplift the broader education sector through our teacher training programme for a group of BEd students each year – but we recognise that there is so much more still to be done. In addition, we have started a process to deliver Edify’s quality education to lower income households through video streaming, alongside other private sector partners.

We have the evidence to prove the benefits of extra lessons taught by professionals rather than students. Quality extra-lesson teaching does have a dramatic effect on improving marks and matric results for learners across the board. It could help South Africa’s learners achieve results that are globally competitive. This would have a massively positive impact on our tertiary education sector, which would then snowball into the job market and uplift our economy.

So we know that extra lessons are the answer to the issue of quality learning. But the harsh truth is that it is currently available only to the privileged few. The real question, thus, is this: how do we make them accessible to every South African child who needs them?