Amongst the year 2022 Matric pupils who “failed” their matric and those who will rewrite, are young people filled with great passions for various business ventures, sports, law, performing arts and drama etc.
Even though these young people have been to school for twelve years and possibly more for others, the school curriculum (NCS) still couldn’t help them charge closer to reaching their dreams. The NCS couldn’t help them because despite passing the subjects relevant to their career paths, they still couldn’t pass the other subjects that formulate a pass requirements concept, and those subjects are irrelevant to their career ambitions. Some of these pupils had to take completely irrelevant subjects in relation to their career paths and they were expected to pass a certain number of these subjects in order to get a matric certificate. An example here is: A year 2022 Gr12 law aspiring learner in a public school did not do Constitution, Family Law, Legal Studies as his subjects, he did Geography, Life Science, Economics etc. which are all irrelevant in relation to Law. And those are the subject this pupil was expected to pass in order to enroll for a Law degree. This curriculum irrelevancy resulted in many, like this pupil, to “fail” or line up to rewrite matric in 2023.
They have been labelled as “failures” by the Department of Education and the society in its entirety. They are called “failures” because they did not meet the passing requirements of a curriculum system (NCS) that is designed for those who are able to memorize facts and those able to deal with academic problem solving during the examination. The entrepreneurial ambitious, sports inclined, and political driven learner was bound to “fail” under this mass curriculum system.
The failures of these individuals depict the failures of the NCS (South African curriculum system). These are failures of the NCS because the NCS in South Africa is failing to provide a range of desired and relevant subjects to the learners. Even in the instances where the NCS provide the relevant subjects like Drama and Arts, Hospitality, EGD etc. learners still have to pass the other subjects, irrelevant to their career paths, in order to be deemed successful matriculants.
A learner who is passionate about performing arts (actor/actress) may find Maths/Maths Literacy, Physics, Economics etc. seriously challenging, yet he has to pass these subjects in order to get a matric certificate. Why hold back an aspiring artist with Maths, economics, and physics he did not pass if he can make it as an artist (actor/actress) without the knowledge of these subjects? The Singaporean principal argues the same point as he sends a letter to the parents of learners due to write their exams, the letter reads “But please do remember, amongst the students who will be sitting for the exams there is an artist, who doesn’t need to understand Math…There is an entrepreneur, who doesn’t care about History or English literature…There is a musician, whose Chemistry marks won’t matter…There’s an athlete…whose physical fitness is more important than Physics…If your child does get top marks, that’s great! But if he or she doesn’t…please don’t take away their self-confidence and dignity from them. Tell them it’s OK, it’s just an exam! They are cut out for much bigger things in life. Tell them, no matter what they score…you love them and will not judge them.”
What the NCS does is giving on one hand and secretly taking away on the other – NCS gives u subject like EGD for engineering aspiring learners. Even if you pass the EGD should you fail English and other irrelevant subjects you still fail because the EGD comes in a package with worthless subjects for an engineer aspiring learner. Solely passing EGD won’t help a learner get his matric certificate, you need to pass other subject alongside EGD and those subjects are completely irrelevant for engineers.
That is why then amongst the so called “failures” after the announcement and the release of Matric results are excellently gifted and talented young people who have been sadly excluded by the curriculum system of South Africa (NCS) and they find themselves having wasted twelve and possibly over twelve years of their lives serving the system at the expense of being served by the system.
NCS is committing education crimes that need pragmatic and progressivism approach if it is to be redressed accordingly.
The proposed Personalized Education Curriculum System (PECS) is embedded on various education philosophies. Our previous publications addressed the pragmatic approach to education and the publication before that focused on realism as an educational philosophy. Progressivism is another from which PECS is founded.
Progressivists education seeks to promote democratic schooling as well as social living. The other major emphasis is on a child or learner-centered curriculum. The curriculum therefore is based on the learners’ interests, needs, abilities, and aspirations and that’s exactly what you don’t find with the NCS.
It is with such reasons that Simnandi Solutions Pty Ltd have developed an alternative curriculum system that is designed in accordance with the content of the Singaporean principal’s letter. Personalized Education Curriculum System (PECS) is an advocate for explicit education curriculum system that is about the reality of the world people find themselves in. PECS seeks to reverse the current curriculum irrelevancy into curriculum relevancy. The PECS is designed to save learners from the monstrous curriculum that forces them to undertake subjects they won’t need in the future. PECS is a transformative education curriculum system that, through its nature of design, will put an end to the whole confusion around curriculum debates. PECS seeks to bring back the value and the dignity of our education system. PECS ensures that learners taste the glimpse of the workplace experience while still at school. That’s what makes our curriculum unique and highly relevant to inspire the education community of our nation, South Africa and the whole of Africa. And that is how we believe the education system can be fixed.
Know more about PECS: https://simnandisolutions.co.za/personalized-education/.
Click on PECS PowerPoint presentation.
Please answer these 3 questions and submit: https://simnandisolutions.co.za/pecs-questionnaires/