Struggling matrics could get an extra year to complete their studies

Struggling matrics could get an extra year to complete their studies

The Department of Basic Education is pondering a plan to allow struggling matric students the possibility of completing their matric over a two-year period.

A government gazette published on Friday, 3 June 2016, proposes that learners who fail Grade 11 twice and are then pushed through to matric, could be given the option of writing some of their exams in December and completing the rest in June the next year.

Students will still need to fulfill certain criteria in order to be a part of the new system. They will have to attend class on a regular basis and complete all assignments. If approved, the plan could become a reality in 2017.

“We piloted it last year but there was no uniformity in terms of its application. The uptake was also very low because it was late in the year,” said Basic Education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga.

Mhlanga said in an interview with 702 that 80 000 of the 701 000 students who wrote matric in 2015 could have qualified for such an arrangement.

“We want everyone who enters the education system to leave with a matric certificate of good quality. He said that the current system shows that some learner are not coping because they are not gifted the same way. There needs to be support measure put into place to ensure that they pass,” Mhlanga said.

The idea behind the scheme to stagger the exam subjects over a longer period of time. Matrics will still receive a single certificate once all their subjects have been passed. Mhlanga said that the department has noticed that matrics who have not passed in the last ten years have returned to school in an attempt to do so.

The public have 21 days from June 3 to comment.