It’s that time of the year again where thousands of matriculants are waiting for their last year’s final exam results. The class of 2022 is considered to have suffered the burden of the Covid-19 pandemic since 2020. The class in question was the 10th class at the peak of the pandemic, which had a serious impact on the 2020 and 2021 academic years. no different, even if school is allowed, it is done in rotation…
It’s that time of the year again where thousands of matriculants are waiting for their last year’s final exam results.
The class of 2022 is considered to have suffered the burden of the Covid-19 pandemic since 2020. The class in question is the 10th grade at the peak of the pandemic, which has had a serious impact on the 2020 and 2021 academic years.
Although 2020 was implemented with strict lockdown rules which meant that the movement of people was limited, 2021 was no different, although schools were allowed, it was done in rotation.
READ ALSO: Ramaphosa ‘had to bite the bullet’ during lockdown, experts say
As of January 2022, 80% of schools in the country are still operating on a rotational basis.
The class will perform despite the challenges
With the release of matric results expected just over a week after the start of the new academic year, the secretary general of the largest teachers’ union, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) Mugwena Maluleke opined that the class of 2022 has been the class most affected by the pandemic.
“We are talking about a class that cannot go to school regularly, a group of students who are subject to rotation classes.
“Despite all the challenges brought by the pandemic, we still hope that this class will do well because of the sacrifices made by students and teachers when they start additional classes during weekends and holidays,” said Maluleke.
READ ALSO: The DA approached the high court to stop the rotational school
The executive director of the second largest teachers’ union, the National Organization of Professional Teachers of South Africa (Naptosa) Basil Manuel echoed Maluleke’s sentiments, saying that the classroom has suffered the most from the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Manuel, this group and its teachers are forced to do extra work to make up for lost teaching and learning time.
This extra teaching time also means a shorter holiday break for teachers who only have three weeks off.
“Our concern as Naptosa about shorter breaks means we can also have problems with burnout and fatigue,” says Manuel.
Asked what he expected from the matric results to be officially released by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on January 19, Manuel said we would be lucky to record an 80% pass rate.
READ ALSO: Matric exams: Will the results be published in the newspaper?
In the previous exam, the class of 2021 recorded a pass rate of 76.4%, an increase of 0.2% from the 2020 exam at the peak of the pandemic.
“Yes, we really want to get a good result, but the quality of passing is what concerns us as Naptosa because it has been declining for a long time,” Manuel said.
The impact of community protests in the 2022 school year
In addition to the challenges brought by the pandemic, the academic year 2022 also experienced other challenges from community protests and severe weather conditions, as Manuel explained:
“In 2022, we received several reports from various provinces about the number of community protests that had an impact on an already stressful academic year.
“Just this week, we received a report about a school being destroyed in Soweto… so the impact of the disease of society on education is very much felt by teachers and children,” said Manuel.
The impact of severe weather conditions in the 2022 academic year
The severe weather conditions that caused flooding, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) early last year, also had a negative impact on schools after more than 200 schools were damaged.
READ ALSO: KZN floods: 248 schools damaged, online learning can resume
“We are still receiving reports from some provinces that have been affected by floods, saying that there are still schools that have not been fully repaired,” Manuel said.
University of Johannesburg senior research associate Prof Mary Metcalfe said the class of 2022 lost time in 2020 and 2021 when they were in class 10 and then 11.
“In the 10th grade, they must not go to school between the end of March, and only come back at the end of September.
“In the 11th grade, many only go to school twice a day. Apart from the lost opportunity to learn, many may struggle with the rhythm and routine of school discipline,” said Metcalfe.
Metcalfe said the last two years National Senior Certificate (NSC) results for students studying in the pandemic were not as poor as expected.
Too much focus on matric pass level
Metcalfe is of the opinion that focusing too much on national pass rate figures is not educational.
“It confirms that the country has certain schools and hides many young people who stop before they have the chance to write and that these children will be at great risk if they are not included in society.
“It also hides the inequality related to the performances in the various provinces because the various provinces have different resources… So I never give a prediction and when I look at the results of the matrix, whether the total result is 67%, 78% or 83%, it’s just an oversimplification of the bigger picture,” Metcalfe added.
Education activist Dr. Muavia Gallie said that the rotation time model adopted in 2020 reduces the instructional time to 50% of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), and reduces the content by 30%, in two years (2020 and 2021).
The recovery annual lesson plan is a strategy, according to Gallie, to make up for time and content loss.
However, Gallie is of the opinion that the lack of additional annual school calendar days resulted in no significant recovery in the previous years (2020 and 2021).
“Teachers and students are affected by a 50% loss of content and instructional time for 2020 and 2021 and these losses will be more harmful in subjects, such as mathematics and science, which are based on previous knowledge from previous years.
“In particular, the National Senior Certificate (NSC) mathematics examination paper will challenge students with content topics covered during Grades 10 and 11, and revised only in Grade 12.
“If the content topic is not covered and/or not enough in the content knowledge, it can prevent students from engaging with the topic,” says Gallie.