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Science drop worries IEB

Farzana Rasool
By Farzana Rasool, ITWeb IT in Government Editor.
Johannesburg, 05 Jan 2012

The Independent Examinations Board (IEB) has expressed concern at the drop in the number of matriculants writing physical science in 2011.

It says it is committed to the promotion of mathematics and science in its schools. However, there was a drop in the number of learners taking physical sciences at grade 12 through the IEB, from 52.3% of all IEB students in 2008 to 47.4% in 2011.

“This appears to be a national trend, with the decline in the percentage of learners offering physical sciences in the state NSC from 2008 to 2010 also showing a decline.”

Despite this drop in overall numbers taking physical sciences, the IEB says it is heartening to see the increase in the uptake of the subject by girls. This has changed from 45.5% in 2008, to 47.4% in 2011.

In 2011, 8 281 learners from 173 schools across the country wrote the IEB National Senior Certificate examination. The 2011 pass rate is 98.15%, comparable to last year's pass rate of 98.38%.

Maths challenge

The IEB says it is optimistic that the recent curriculum revisions and the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS), released in 2011, have addressed the overload in the demand in physical sciences, thereby making it a more attractive option for learners.

“This initiative will hopefully arrest the decline in the number of learners offering physical sciences.”

It also says the entry for Advanced Programme Mathematics, an extension programme offered by the IEB for both state and IEB learners, increased from 1 066 candidates in 2010 to 1 294 candidates in 2011, an increase of just over 21%.

“The number of IEB learners offering mathematics paper three has remained constant at 41.6% of those who offer mathematics. This means that schools have a challenge ahead of them to prepare their learners for the changes envisaged by the new CAPS documents. These changes indicate that most of the current content of paper three will be incorporated into mathematics paper one and two by 2014,” says the board.

In an effort to encourage the development of the critical skills that successful students need, the IEB says it has added Advanced Programme English to Advanced Programme Mathematics, which has established its worth for learners who pursue any mathematics-based course at university.

“A pilot has been conducted this year with 119 students from 12 schools. The quality of the responses of learners to a challenging paper is very encouraging, and reminds us that the quality and insight of South African learners should never be under-estimated.

“Schools have been encouraged to expose learners to the demands of this course through a tutorial style of delivery, encouraging self-study on the part of participating learners,” says IEB CEO Anne Oberholzer.

She adds the Advanced Programmes in Mathematics, and in the future, English, are not restricted to independent schools but include learners from state schools who wish to participate.

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