Basic education (NCS) pass requirements refer to the standards in percentages at which the learner is expected to perform for progression and higher education admission in South Africa. The pass requirement standards in South Africa are regulated by the council for quality assurance, Umalusi in collaboration with the basic education department. The pass requirement standards have had its criticism from various people and education commentators. At first, the pass requirement in South Africa was at a reasonable level but since 1994 to date, the pass requirement standards have been gradually lowered to an alarming level! It has been lowered to an extent that NCS has legalised, through education policies, that a learner can obtain 30% for a certain subject and that is officially regarded as a pass! This paper seeks to comparatively review the pass requirement standards in South Africa compared to other countries. The paper will further discuss the painful reasons for the constant lowering of the pass requirement standards in the basic education in south Africa. The paper will conclude by revealing the pass requirements for personalized education curriculum system (PECS).
Pass requirements are a motivation for learners to keep their performance at an accepted standard of grades/marks. That motivation (pass requirement standards) should be realistic and challenge the learner to reach for the stars. The council of quality assurance, in this case Umalusi, should set those standards in accordance with the types of learners they want to produce. But those standards should also adhere to the envisaged level of performance of the higher education students the schools are producing through the basic education in South Africa. The pass requirements should be a yardstick used to assess the performance levels. Everything is regarded to be standing at 100%, which means that, true, realistic and non-fabricated pass requirement standards should be at least standing at 50% for all subjects. This motivates learners to strive for success and achieve the target, a reasonable realistic target.
The pass requirement standards in South Africa are too low and raises a lot of questions. Other countries such as Australia, Canada, and many European countries, 50% is the pass requirement for their basic education. There is another threshold that make up barriers for either a pass and failure – 60% in countries like the USA, China, the Netherlands, and Morocco is the pass requirement. There are outliers to both the upper and lower rates – in the USA, for instance, some states or schools set the failure mark to anything below 65%; and in the Philippines, a fail can be below 72% or even 75% at some institutions (https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/231111/school-pass-marks-in-south-africa-vs-the-rest-of-the-world/). The South African pass requirements standards are as follows:
1.Higher certificate pass requirements – the lowest pass level one can achieve and yet be regarded as having passed. Normally people who passed at this level come back to school to ‘’upgrade or rewrite’’. The requirements are: Must obtain at least 40% in your Home Language, Must obtain at least 40% in two other subjects, Must obtain at least 30% for four other subjects. Must past at least 6 out of 7 subjects.
2.Diploma pass requirements – With this pass you can apply to study for a diploma at a TVET college or University of Technology. The requirements are: Must obtain at least 40% for your Home Language, Must obtain at least 40% for three other subjects excluding Life Orientation, Must obtain at least 30% in the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) of the tertiary institution (Higher Education Institution), Must pass at least 6 out of 7 subjects.
3.Bachelor’s Degree pass requirements – With a Bachelor’s pass you can apply to study towards a degree at a university, university of technology, TVET college or any accredited Higher Learning Institution. The requirements are: Must obtain at least 40% for your Home Language (compulsory), Must obtain at least 50% for four other subjects excluding Life Orientation, Must obtain at least 30% in Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) of the tertiary (Higher Education) institution, Must obtain at least 30% for one other subject, Must pass at least 6 out of 7 subjects.
50% pass requirement is half of 100% and it only makes academic sense to set up pass requirements at that percentage. South Africa has been going the reverse side since 1994, lowering the pass requirements until it reached the point where a mere 30% is deemed a pass for certain subjects within the NCS curriculum! This means that the learner doesn’t have to master 70% of that particular subject, 30% is enough and accepted! The moment you normalize this mediocrity; you are encouraging learners that knowing less than more in a subject is actually the right thing. But you further insinuating to the learners that less efforts deserves to be awarded. This further discourages other learners who strive for 50% and above, the moment they see learners with 30% having passed the subject, it becomes an insult to them and they realize that a hard fought 50% pass is useless if you can obtain a 30% and still pass. It discourages them to see this mediocre praised and encouraged to continue. But what led to South African basic education to lower pass requirements up to this point?
The reason behind the lowering of the pass requirements is the simple fact that learners find the curriculum hard to deal with. The curriculum is hard to deal with not because it is the best curriculum or a curriculum that guarantees you future, no! The NCS curriculum is hard to deal with because it is not designed to cater for the individual educational needs of every learner. Learners feel disengaged by the curriculum. Learners find it hard to cope with the curriculum because the curriculum is not designed to meet the unique life aspirations of individual learners. Learners are struggling with the curriculum because the curriculum forces subjects upon them, subjects that they do not need. In short, the curriculum is hard for learners because the curriculum is answering the question learners never asked. Consequently, the basic education had to lower the pass requirements in order to ensure that learners pass or progress. That is the reason the pass requirements have been constantly lowering over the past years until it reached 30%.
The reason for constant lowering of pass requirements by the basic education department in connection with Umalusi is a sign that education curriculum of south Africa (NCS) is not a relevant curriculum for the learners, if it was, there would be no need to lower the pass requirement standards as far as 30%. These standards are lowered as a result of the curriculum irrelevancy in education. If the curriculum was relevant and learners were undertaking subjects appealing and relevant to their life aspirations, 50% pass requirement for all subjects wouldn’t be a problem to achieve for the learners. That is why the policy document of PECS explicitly stipulates that the pass requirements for all subjects should be at least 50% for a child to progress or receive higher education admission.
Our conclusion, Personalized Education Curriculum System (PECS) is of the view that if the south African universities are using 50% pass requirement standards, our basic education schools should follow suit. That is why PECS believes that categorizing learners in accordance with their career paths will help stimulate sense of self drive to work and achieve the set targets. We believe that if learners are doing meaningful subjects to their life, they are bound to pass them beyond average pass mark (50%).
To understand PECS, go to: https://simnandisolutions.co.za/personalized-education/ (Click on : PECS Powerpint presentation.)