Department of Education boosts exam scores for secondary school

Loyiso Langeni
24 November 2014

The Department of Basic Education has announced that as from this year schools will adjust their exams scores for pupils in Grade 7,8 and 9.

The department's Elijah Mhlanga said this will improve the quality of education in the public schooling system. This means that pupils now have to pass eight out of nine subjects before pupils had to pass only seven. The adjustment also means that pupils have to get a 50% for their home language.

Mhlanga said we felt that the best way to do it was to start at the lower grade not at the senior phase to ensure that those learners in grade 7, 8and 9 adjust to the new requirements before they get to Grade 10, 11 and even matric.

"In order to prepare them, for a better performance, you need to start when they are still young and still in the lower grade, by the time they get to grade 12 they would have already adjusted to the new requirement.” Mhlanga added.