Passing learners without merit a concern: Afriforum
The lobby group, AfriForum, has expressed concern about reports of a new "passing rule" in South African schools.
"AfriForum was shocked by the decision of the Minister of Basic Education [Angie Motshekga] that senior learners may from now on only fail once in Grades 10 to 12," the civil rights lobby said on Monday.
"A second fail will mean that they will be passed automatically."
Beeld reported that a directive...read more here: Passing learners without merit a concern: Afriforum
With this rule *everyone* will "pass" (at worst with 1 year delay) so just hand them their worthless certificate first time round and get it over with.Originally Posted by James
Its an entire worthless piece of paper anyway. No reputable university relies on matric anymore - they all do entrance exams.
Yep, our school standards are getting lower and lower. The problem is - the majority of students who fail highschool are from poor black schools, so their chances of going to a reputable university is nothing to zero. So with a matric certificate they are eligible to look for work , for instance in the state or public services, right? Now, just think what quality work a guy with a 30% for his matric exams would do. Even thinking about it makes me angry.
Fair enough.
Be warned that the the bursary game is heavily stacked. e.g. If you as a white A average student compete against a black C average student for a bursary then the white student will lose. Whether that is right/wrong I'll leave up to the reader - I just want to create a bit of awareness about this because it caught me offguard. I knew it would be stacked, but I was still surprised just how heavy the stacking was. So you might be in for a surprise regarding who gets in at reputable unis.
This btw for a bursary without EE requirements.
The thing that makes me angry is that this works the same for admissions in courses such as medical and engineering, and then at the end of the year that C-average student cannot keep up with the pace and/or workload and fails, while the A-average student didn't get in at all. It happens every year and I feel so bad for those top candidates cannot get in because their skin is the wrong colour.
I don't think I quite understand here. Can you only fail once per grade, or only once between grades 10-12? As in, if you fail 10 you automatically pass 11 and 12 even if you fail them?
Because both are retarded, but the latter is extra retarded. It entirely misses the point of failing a grade then. You fail a grade because you don't have sufficient knowledge of the work to apply it anywhere. Our pass rate is low enough already, with most subjects being either 30% or 40%, so if you get passed when you should actually fail it means you basically don't know your work at all.
I know a straight A student who didn't make it into med. She did the next year though.while the A-average student didn't get in at all.
Thankfully in my course there wasn't any real stacking. I think the entrance criteria for black students might have been lower but the department's lecturers were invincible to uni politics though & marked everybody equally harshly so it levels out (First test in hons year they flunked all ~300 of us). Come to think of it my dept's lecturers were legends. Did whatever the fck they wanted & nobody dared challenge them.
Its mainly on the financial side (tuition, bursaries, books, living costs) were things are stacked heavily.
This happened to my sister, straight A's, worked her ass for years and in the end was passed up for a "more suitable candidate". This suitable candidate then dropped out because, hey, it was just too much effort.
Bolded tells me failing Grade 10 will mean automatic pass in Grade 11, but the article did mention that, thanks to the national exams, this won't work for finishing Grade 12."AfriForum was shocked by the decision of the Minister of Basic Education [Angie Motshekga] that senior learners may from now on only fail once in Grades 10 to 12," the civil rights lobby said on Monday.
While I completely agree with the sentiment, and that this AA bullshit has to stop, med school has always been incredibly competitive to get into, and people have been dropping out every year since the inception of med schools, and IMO these folks should not be judged. Being a doctor is the most emotionally taxing job I can imagine, and if your realise sooner rather than later that you're not cut out for it, there is no shame in quitting.
Basically what Murph said. There's a difference between an A-average student dropping out, and a C-average student getting the spot instead of an A-average student, and then dropping out anyway.
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