Model C schools say exams are essential to prepare candidates for matric, but some say this is unfair for poorer pupils
A number of former Model C schools in Pretoria are offering exams to grade 10 and 11 pupils.Many former Model C schools are forging ahead with plans to offer full-scale exams to grade 10 and 11 pupils, despite an instruction by the department of basic education to offer “controlled” tests instead.
The test will make up 40% of the pupil’s total mark in a subject for the year. The remaining 60% will come from school-based assessments . The duration of exams is far longer than that of controlled tests and, while a subject may require three papers to be written during exams, only one paper is generally written in a subject in controlled tests.
“We can’t expose them [grade 11s] to a full-scale exam for the first time only when they’re in grade 12. They need the experience of writing exams before that.”He said they did not announce their top achievers for term two because it would not have been a “realistic” reflection of a pupil’s true potential as most of the assessments conducted were tests, not exams.
He said the grade 11 exams were crucial as universities offered provisional admission to pupils based on these results. He said his association’s proposal was that when schools reopen in January there should be a return to daily schooling for all pupils.Prof Labby Ramrathan, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s education faculty, said having a full-scale exam “would not materially impact on the learner’s engagement with the content being taught and learnt”.
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