WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2003-12-30 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 12/30/2003 6:15:55 AM
S.Africa: Matric pass rate shoots above 70%
[Note. The reason the pass rate shoots up is because they change the way they mark the exams. What is interesting is that the top pupils in the country are virtually always white – even though whites make up 10% or less of the population. They apparently also “adjust” the marks according to race… even so, the whites come out tops. What adds more to the suspicion that they are changing their standards is the fact that this year’s top white student had passes way beyond anything ever seen before.
Jan]
South Africa’s 2003 national matriculation pass rate has improved by 4,4% to a total of 73,3%, Education Minister Kader Asmal announced on Tuesday, up from 68,9% in 2002, 61,7% in 2001 and only 48,9% in 1999.
Unveiling the nationwide results of the senior certificate examinations at a presentation in Cape Town, Asmal said they “clearly show that the tide has turned” for South Africa’s education system.
“We have continued to move from the despair of our past to hope, prosperity and progress for the future. Through focused and targeted interventions, we have, once again, made significant gains in improving the national pass rate, as well as ensuring that many of the schools, which had previously been characterised as dysfunctional, have now shown considerable improvement.
“If we consider where we were in 1999, we have improved the pass rate in grade 12 by 24,4 percentage points over the past five years. We have gone beyond our initial target of a 20 percentage point improvement by 2004. There is no doubt that the 2003 results place a significant distance between the present and our past.”
Of the 440 267 full-time candidates who wrote matric this year, 322 492 passed — 82 010 with exemption. The number of pupils who passed with exemption increased by 1,7% from 16,9% last year to 18,6% in 2003.
The number of candidates who passed with merit (C-aggregate) increased from 36 619 (12%) in 2002 to 41 580 (12,9%)
this year, and those who passed with distinction increased from 8 412 (2,8%) in 2002 to 9 299 (2,9%) in 2003, Asmal said.
The Northern Cape led the pack with a pass rate of 90,7%, followed by the Western Cape with 87,1%, Gauteng with 81,5% and the Free State with a 80% pass rate. Then came KwaZulu-Natal (77,2%), North West (70,5%), Limpopo (70%), Eastern Cape (60%) and Mpumalanga (58,2%).
Asmal added that the number of underperforming schools in the 0% to 20% pass category had fallen from 1 034 in 1999 to only 154 currently, out of 6 045 schools.
“It is very significant that while the number of schools in the 0% to 20% category was about 20% of the total number of schools five years ago, the number has now declined to a mere 2,5% in 2003,” he noted. “In this regard, the Eastern Cape had 109 schools in this category in 2002, now reduced to 56. In the Free State there has been a reduction from 8 to only three, while in Gauteng the number remains at 15.
“KwaZulu-Natal had 42 schools in this category, now down to 37, and in Limpopo the number has fallen from 20 to 15. Mpumalanga has moved from 13 to nine schools. And the Western Cape and North West have four and two such schools respectively.”
Results from provinces:
Free State
Free State matriculants have achieved a pass rate of 79,9% in this year’s senior certificate exams, provincial education minister Papi Kganare announced on Tuesday.
He said this is far above the national pass rate of 73,3%.
Kganare was speaking at a function at Free State House in Bloemfontein to congratulate top matric achievers.
The latest Free State pass rate represents an improvement of 20,9% in the past two years. Fifty-nine percent of Free State matriculants passed in 2001, and 70,7% in 2002.
Kganare added that 95,8% of the province’s 336 high schools achieved matric pass rates of 40% and above. In only two schools did more than 80% of the grade 12-candidates fail.
The province’s top matriculant for 2003 is Elize van Eck from the High School Sentraal in Bloemfontein, who obtained eight distinctions.
The top achiever from its previously disadvantaged schools is Thabiso Ignatius Litelu from Tsoseletso High School, also in Bloemfontein.
Kganare honoured the secondary girls’ school Eunice in Bloemfontein for the fourth year in a row as the Free State school with the best matric results overall.
KwaZulu-Natal
Four years ago just more than half of KwaZulu-Natal’s matric candidates passed their final examinations. This year more than three-quarters made it, provincial education minister Narend Singh said on Tuesday.
The province’s 77,5% matric pass rate for 2003 exceeded expectations, he said in a speech prepared for delivery at the announcement of the final results.
Last year the pass rate was 70,8% after gradually improving from 1999’s 51%.
Singh said 133 schools, 18 more than last year, had a 100% pass rate in the 2003 exams.
More than 20 percent of those who wrote this year obtained matric exemption.
Alongside the congratulations to pupils and teachers, Singh condemned newspapers that broke Tuesday’s 6am embargo for the publication of the matric results in the province.
“I find this shameful, to say the least. We had verbal and written undertakings that the embargo would be respected. I find it most disappointing. We are getting legal advice on the position.”
The department said special supplements containing the results in the streets of Durban on Monday night, despite the embargo.
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape has scored the highest matric pass rate in the country, provincial education minister Tina Joemat-Petterson announced on Tuesday in Kimberley.
Joemat-Petterson said 90,7% of her province’s class of 2003 had passed their senior certificate exams. This is slightly up from last year’s Northern Cape pass rate of 89,9%.
In only two schools in the province less than 60% of the matric candidates passed, and in only five the pass rate was below 80%.
Joemat-Petterson said the province must now concentrate on maintaining a pass rate of above 90%, and stay ahead of the other provinces.
She expressed concern about some lower grades, in which pass rate improvements were needed.
Western Cape
For the third consecutive year the Western Cape achieved a matric pass rate of more than 80%.
This year for the first time it broke the 87% mark, but the premier still sounded a word of warning about the number of school drop-outs plaguing the education system.
“Only 63% of learners successfully complete their primary school learning in the first seven years. Only 25% completed their schooling in 12 years (both primary and secondary schooling) … these shocking statistics are clearly unacceptable,” said premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk at an awards ceremony for the Western Cape’s top matriculants on Tuesday.
Van Schalkwyk said the province has identified education as a key to ensuring the region’s economic and human resource growth. The quality of education is also key in making students globally marketable.
Earlier, provincial education minister Andre Gaum said the future of the province starts with its children.
“The task in the Western Cape is to let the Cape grow, and this must start with education,” he said.
Gaum said that the matric pass rate is not the only measure of success for the province, and that the provincial education department is equally interested in the actual number of candidates passing, as well as the quality of these passes.
“We measure the quality of passes by the number of candidates who pass with endorsement, merit and distinction, among other indicators,” he said.
Gaum said 56% of the high schools in the Western Cape, about 216 schools out of 383, achieved a matric pass rate of 90% or more. The actual number of candidates passing increased from 32 985 last year to 33 769 this year.
Gaum said the quality of passes has also improved, with more students passing with endorsement, with merit and with distinction than in previous years.
He alluded to the fact that it is easy to increase the pass rate by reducing the number of candidates who write exams, and only registering those most likely to pass, a strategy his department actively discourages.
Turning to the job market for matriculants, Gaum said his department is concerned about access to employment and opportunities for further study.
“For this reason we will continue working with our partners in government, labour and business, to increase employment opportunities and access to financial aid for further studies.”
At Tuesday’s award ceremony, the province’s top 20 students as well as merit awards for the top schools were announced.
The province’s top matriculant is Johannes Hermanus Kemp of Paul Roos Gimnasium in Stellenbosch.
The top achiever from a previously disadvantaged school is Taryn Olivier of Luckhof Senior Secondary in Stellenbosch, who said she wants to study industrial engineering.
Girls domainated the ranks of the top achievers, with no less than 14 among the top 20.
The top three schools in the province were Paul Roos Gimnasium, Hoe(171)«r Meisieskool Bloemhof and Hoe(171)«rskool DF Malan.
Source: Daily Mail & Guardian
URL: http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=29105&t…br>