33% fail new Grade 10 curriculum

[Vox Populi Vox Dei]

I find it a complete joke that people are failing Life Orientation - you don't actually do anything remotely close to taxing your brain. You get marks for completing the work. In fact people laugh at you (at our school) if you win the Life Orientation Prize.

ne in three pupils who wrote last year’s Grade 10 examination based on the new curriculum failed dismally.

Figures supplied by seven of the nine provincial education departments to the Sunday Times reveal that 200877 of the 551506 pupils did not make the grade.

The new curriculum, which was implemented for the first time in Grade 10 last year, makes it compulsory for pupils in grades 10-12 to now study seven subjects instead of six.

Besides maths or maths literacy, life orientation and two languages which are compulsory, pupils are required to take a further three subjects.

The new curriculum was designed to develop high levels of knowledge and skills in pupils and also to help them think critically. But last year’s Grade 10 failure rate has sparked criticism that teachers were not adequately prepared to teach these subjects.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Limpopo’s Education MEC, Aaron Motsoaledi, said some principals had indicated that the Grade 10 failure rate was high.

“But the new curriculum is more demanding because it’s geared to making learners think. The emphasis is on cognitive thinking rather than on rote learning as used to be the situation in the past.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Harry Moyo, principal of Moses Mnisi High School in Limpopo, blamed the shortage of qualified teachers, especially in maths and life orientation, on the high Grade 10 failure rate at his school.

A total of 119 out of the 362 pupils who wrote Grade 10 failed. Only 18 out of the 362 pupils passed maths. His Grade 10s also produced appalling results in life orientation, with only 156 of the 362 pupils passing.

“The way the NCS [new curriculum statement] was introduced to teachers is a problem. They went for workshops lasting two to three days and some came back confused, while others did not understand what was happening.”

Dave Balt, president of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa, said the union was “absolutely certain” that very little had been done by provinces to support teachers and pupils with the new curriculum.

 

[Syndyre]

Its quite scary actually.

 

[BandwidthAddict]

I heard that the New Curriculum is a dumbed down version of the old one. Is this true?

 

[Syndyre]

That's the impression I've gotten. For one there's no SG and HG anymore.

 

[Tassidar]

I heard that the New Curriculum is a dumbed down version of the old one. Is this true?

Hi BWA,

While I personally know little of the new curriculum, since I finished stopped teaching just before its introduction, I think it is simple to say it is the old curriculum dumbed down.

My reasons follows:
(1) Maths literacy, while not as complex as mathematics, is compulsory for all pupils. This means pupils who fear maths cannot escape it easily.
(2) I know two science teachers who say the proposed matric syllabus is far more complicated than the current one, and that the new system tries to teach all of the old curriculum's content in one year.
(3) The learning methodology of OBE is very different to the old system. OBE relies far more on self-education, and applying principles rather than straight learning.


While I support the principles of OBE, it is the implementation that really lets it down. This is really because of the lack of discipline.

Under the old system, when the teacher taught, the class was quiet, and most activities were individual based. The new system relies far more on group work, which in an undisciplined class rapidly disintegrates into chaos, with the teacher being able to exercise less control.

 

[Syndyre]

Glad I missed it, I hate group work!

 

[Wisemansa]

also glad i missed it

 

[Vox Populi Vox Dei]

@Tassidar: I appreciate your comments -especially because you're a teacher.

On the Science issue - our teachers have said it is dumbed down. For example when we are taught velocity/acceleration etc. the old syllabus included crosswinds and other "obstacles" so you couldn't do straight equations. Now I'm not sure if that has been pushed to G12 (I'm in G11) but it was in the G11 syllabus. Furthermore, the light/sound/waves section is exactly or very close to what I learned in Grade 9.

Yeah it's good that they're pushing Maths and Science but the Maths Literacy course is a joke. I think they do Pythagoras and statistics (in G11!) which the rest of the grade covered in G9. The normal Maths course has certainly been dumbed down. My brother who matriculated in '05 were ahead of us. They started trigonometry and advanced geometry (parabolas/hyperbolas etc) in G9 while we only covered it in the latter half of the year in G10. I wonder if we're going to be doing circle geometry at this rate. (Not that I want to do it)

Yeah that is basically the problem of OBE - group-work. I hate it. Unless you have other members of the group who are as intelligent or work as hard as you do, then 1 or 2 members pull the group through (I do this so get high marks and not the mediocre marks I would've obtained if I let those other members do the work)

 

[4cer]

my girlfriend being a year behind me, and me being in matric, i can see the difference.

And the new system, is seriously dumbed down, she doesn't do half the maths i do, even my maths teacher, the HOD, says oh the new syllabus, won't do any of the work you do this term. The skip vast amounts of geometry out.

And science, they do weird things. but easier.

 

[Skeptik]

That's the impression I've gotten. For one there's no SG and HG anymore.

The reason given was that it was confusing for employers and certain individuals were changing the 'S' to an 'H' on their CVs or simply leaving it out.

While I support the principles of OBE, it is the implementation that really lets it down. This is really because of the lack of discipline....

Under the old system, when the teacher taught, the class was quiet, and most activities were individual based. The new system relies far more on group work, which in an undisciplined class rapidly disintegrates into chaos, with the teacher being able to exercise less control.

OBE has long been discredited in the UK.
Group work requires more teacher involvement, which doesn't work well if the class is big. In fact that's why they want teacher assistants.

my girlfriend being a year behind me, and me being in matric, i can see the difference.

And the new system, is seriously dumbed down, she doesn't do half the maths i do, even my maths teacher, the HOD, says oh the new syllabus, won't do any of the work you do this term. The skip vast amounts of geometry out.

And science, they do weird things. but easier.

Well they are going to have to learn the missing bits later. Do you thing the university syllabus will also be dumbed down. Somehow I don't think it can get any dumber, unless SA degrees are allowed to become worthless.

 

[Syndyre]

The reason given was that it was confusing for employers and certain individuals were changing the 'S' to an 'H' on their CVs or simply leaving it out.

That's the most stupid reason I've ever heard!

Well they are going to have to learn the missing bits later. Do you thing the university syllabus will also be dumbed down. Somehow I don't think it can get any dumber, unless SA degrees are allowed to become worthless.

I heard at the time it was being implemented that some universities were considering introducing bridging years. I suppose it will just make university that much harder and people will have to figure out more themselves.

 

[PeterCH]

Introduce uni entrance exams and cram schools. A friend had to
do 4-5 hours of cram school after ordinary high school and its homework
plus cram school had it's own homework, to get into Tokyo U.
Same for a Taiwanese buddy, then again when he came to SA,
in Standard 7, he had already covered our Matric HG maths syllabus.

That way SA would become the second richest nation on earth, but wait.... it would be unfair
so it would never work.... ok gotta settle for banana republic status then .

 

[Gunny]

Are kids these days just lazy or what ? Seems like they dont want the effort of educating themselves. Re introduce corpral punishment, get decent teaches, retrain current ones and pay them more so they acually feel like they being appreciated for educating the nation. The only problem then will be the parents who dont care or spoil there kids to much.

 

[CooperS]

Are kids these days just lazy or what ? Seems like they dont want the effort of educating themselves. Re introduce corpral punishment, get decent teachers, retrain current ones and pay them more so they acually feel like they are being appreciated for educating the nation. The only problem then will be the parents who dont care or spoil there kids too much.

Well said that man!!

 

[alma-tadema]

@Tassidar: I appreciate your comments -especially because you're a teacher.

On the Science issue - our teachers have said it is dumbed down. For example when we are taught velocity/acceleration etc. the old syllabus included crosswinds and other "obstacles" so you couldn't do straight equations. Now I'm not sure if that has been pushed to G12 (I'm in G11) but it was in the G11 syllabus. Furthermore, the light/sound/waves section is exactly or very close to what I learned in Grade 9.

Yeah it's good that they're pushing Maths and Science but the Maths Literacy course is a joke. I think they do Pythagoras and statistics (in G11!) which the rest of the grade covered in G9. The normal Maths course has certainly been dumbed down. My brother who matriculated in '05 were ahead of us. They started trigonometry and advanced geometry (parabolas/hyperbolas etc) in G9 while we only covered it in the latter half of the year in G10. I wonder if we're going to be doing circle geometry at this rate. (Not that I want to do it)

Yeah that is basically the problem of OBE - group-work. I hate it. Unless you have other members of the group who are as intelligent or work as hard as you do, then 1 or 2 members pull the group through (I do this so get high marks and not the mediocre marks I would've obtained if I let those other members do the work)

Do you still do all the Euclidean Geometry? That was totally useless, I can understand some work on it, but HALF of the mathematics syllabi... trust me you never use it. All that time could have been used on more differentation and integration as well as analytical geometry. If you are a science student in University, you have too take Calculus, which crams all the maths like limits, differentiation, integration and applications into 1 semester, of course the students flunk it like flies. (This has a HG Maths requirement as well, so not everyone is stupid). The same is done with Analytical geometry in courses like Civil Engineering, the School Syllabus still seems to date out of 1900.