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At the recent announcement of Gauteng’s 2024 matric results, both Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane and premier Panyaza Lesufi voiced strong support for consolidating the various examination systems now in place, including the National Senior Certificate (NSC) and the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) exams.
Chiloane, speaking candidly at the event, argued that the stark financial disparities between schools and their associated pass rates cannot continue to drive division in the system.
“If you are paying R200,000 school fees and your child fails, I am sure the life of that school’s principal would be at risk,” he said.
His comment emphasised the pressure that expensive private schools and their principals face when students underperform, further underlining the inequities between different educational sectors.
“For me, whether you pay R200,000 for your children to go to school or for free, this year they are going to be sitting next to each other at Wits,” said Chiloane.
His point was that the financial status of students should not influence their academic outcomes or their opportunities for higher education, particularly in a system where top universities such as Wits will admit students from various educational backgrounds.
He stressed his belief in the need for a single, unified examination system, regardless of the type of school or fees paid.
“Let’s go write one exam and see, so they must not create conversations as if it’s football which is not about winning or losing it’s about creating conversations,” Chiloane said.
He called for an end to the debate between IEB and NSC exams, calling for a standard examination that all learners can sit for. He said this would ensure fairness and equality in the education system.
Lesufi echoed Chiloane’s call, saying a unified system would achieve consistent results.
Reflecting on the success of Lufhereng, a school that achieved an impressive 96% bachelor pass rate, he pointed out that despite being an informal school, it could still produce top achievers.
“If you have a child or a school that is an informal school like Lufhereng and it can give us a 96% bachelor pass rate… this calls for all of us to push for one examination,” said Lesufi.
Lesufi said such a shift was long overdue, as it would ensure that South Africa’s education system was more equitable.
“Even at university we get to write the same exam. So we are saying why do we not prepare our learners early, have them write the same exam at university but they can’t do that in high school,” said Lesufi.
Lesufi pointed out that benchmarking the country’s education system revealed disparities that hurt public school learners.
“When you do benchmarking for South Africa’s education system, they say public school learners cannot read for meaning, they do not incorporate the IEB because we have different sectors of education,” Lesufi said.
By merging all the educational sectors under one examination system, he argued, South Africa would ensure that the benchmark remained the same across all types of schooling.
The call for a single national exam came as Gauteng celebrated a strong 2024 matric performance.
With an 88.4% pass rate, the province saw significant improvements, particularly in the number of students qualifying for Bachelor’s degree studies.
Bachelor passes rose from 44.3% in 2023 to 52.3% in 2024. The overall South African pass rate for the year stood at 87.3%, with nearly half of the candidates qualifying for bachelor’s degree admission.
TimesLIVE
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