Gauteng upbeat as matrics boost pass rate by 4 pc

JOHANNESBURG -- The 1998 matric results revealed a pass rate of 55,6 percent, an improvement of over four percent on last year, Gauteng education MEC Mary Metcalfe said yesterday.

Ms Metcalfe said 1,9 percent of the overall 4,1 percent increase was accounted for by marks that were adjusted for pupils writing examinations not written in their mother tongue.

Ms Metcalfe said the education department had addressed the systematic problems of the past which caused a general decline in the Senior Certificate over the past four years.

"We have arrested the decline in matric results in Gauteng. We have turned an important corner."

The percentage of pupils achieving matric exemption dropped from 17 percent to 16,3 percent. But there was an increase in the total percentage who registered for the exemption and this explained the drop, Ms Metcalfe said.

She said the rise in pass rates was due to the department's focus on improved management of schools' timetables and management development programmes offered to school principals.

The department had also taken steps to ensure an improvement in school attendance and had introduced common examinations.

There was a five percent increase in the subject medians in all nine African languages. The results of non-language subjects on average improved by between five and ten percent.

Nine private schools and 11 public schools achieved a total pass rate of less than ten percent.

Ms Metcalfe said the department would work out a rigorous implementation plan to improve the functioning of these schools and the quality of their education.

Greenside High School pupil Glenda Wright achieved the top aggregate mark with 2238 and seven distinctions. Hoërskool Transvalia scholar Reinhardt Messerschmidt achieved a record 11 distinctions, with an aggregate of 2230.

Two schools, Leshata in Orange Farm and Mafori Mphahlele in Soweto, improved their results by more than 50 percent. -- Sapa