Matric results 2008

[Stuart]

Now quick, back to your hole in the sand.

Aye, aye, cap'n!

[ryanrich]

Now quick, back to your hole in the sand.

Aye, aye, cap'n!

Tis the season to be merry, so let us be merry.

[Stuart]

Didn't Merry have a little lamb? I like lamb. Tasty!

[Prime]

Matric exams are EVIL!!!

They sent me the wrong results and when I asked for a remark they remarked the wrong bloody papers.

Now for all eternity I'm stuck with these results unless I pay to write again *sob*

(I decided to pay more money and do the American SATS but the SA postal service lost my results 3 times so I gave up - yes they only send them via postal service)

PS: Correct results would have meant free uni

Except that iseem to remember you did 3 different uni courses all for a little while

[R3D]

well comparing a 62% pass rate on the new curriculum to the 20% pass rate on the old curriculum is like comparing melros cheese to aged cheddar . both are good but aged cheddar is better.

The level of education students recieved on the old curriculum is vastly supperior to that of the new one.
example: When I was im grade 12 the difference betwean math high grade and math standard grade was based on the amount of work done in a certain time frame. Now that they have made math a required subject the difference is higher grade is still higher grade but standard grade you now need to be able to build a octagon out of jellytots and touth pics.

I base what i have written here by comparing my school work (2007, my year was the last to recieve education in the previous curriculum) to my brothers (2008 new curriculum)

So my thoughts on the matter is that a 20% pass rate of 2007 is vastly superior to that of the 62% pass rate of this year.

Oh and on a side note congrats to all the people who passed this year

[ryanrich]

'SA education in crisis'
30/12/2008 22:41 - (SA)

Cape Town - The uneven matric results for 2008 show that despite a drastic curriculum change, South African education is still plagued by problems rooted in the apartheid era, observers said on Tuesday.

Vijay Reddy from the Human Sciences Research Council said the 2.7% drop in the matric pass rate to 62.5% was "very worrying because it means that 38%, or four out of ten, have failed."

But she said it was "admirable" that university entry passes increased by 4% for the first batch of matrics to have completed school under the much-contested Outcome Based Education (OBE) system.

Seen side by side, the two figures proved that the inequalities of the past persist because students from better resourced schools were better able to adapt to the OBE programme, Reddy said.

Gap widening

"We are seeing that pupils who were doing well have improved and that those who were performing poorly have been further disadvantaged under the new system.

"One of the aims of the new system was to level the playing fields but it will take more than one generation of outcome based education to achieve that."

Milnerton High School headmaster Paul Besener agreed, saying the results of the first matrics to write the new national senior certificate confirmed expectations that most traditionally advantaged schools would adapt smoothly to the new curriculum.

The Western Cape MEC for Education, Yousuf Gabru, said it was cause for concern that the number of schools with pass rates of less than 60% had suddenly increased by nearly 20% compared to 2007.

"The results show that we still have a long way to go to ensure access to success in all schools."

Warning of a crisis

But Brian O'Connell, the rector of the University of the Western Cape, said the 2008 matric results should not be blamed on historical inequalities but read as a warning of a national education crisis.

"There is nothing surprising in the results. We have no right to expect them to be any different," he said.

The real problem, O'Connell argued, was the political failure to build a post-apartheid culture of learning to make up for lost decades when education was a tug of war.

"We should stop throwing around the resources thing and ask why we don't have a strong national culture of learning, instilled from the presidency downwards.

"We have no leadership in schools and we have no quality control."

O'Connell said though the new curriculum has been improved for the last years of high school, it should be adjusted throughout as matriculants still arrived at university with poor cognitive skills and battled to cope with academic challenges.

University passes

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said it was heartening that those matrics who passed did so with better results this year and that more of them could now go to university.

"It appears as if the long, hard climb towards an improvement in the quality (rather than just the quantity) of matric passes may have begun," she said.

But Zille too said not all South Africans were getting an equal start in school.

"There is a long way to go before every school pupil has is given real opportunities to improve their lives, through quality education. This should be a birthright of every South African, and we have a long, difficult road that lies ahead to attain it."

[D3PART3D]

This is absolutely ridiculous! I see the pass rate in the Eastern Cape was HALF!

SA's future is in good hands I see...

Lol, dude ... you and Zana should hook up. Zana's uses every conceivable opportunity to go on about petrol prices; you use every conceivable opportunity to go on about South Africa's dark future.

Quoted for friggen truth! I'm sick of it already.

[ryanrich]

Aaaaaw, let's call the waaaaambulance...

[D3PART3D]

Aaaaaw, let's call the waaaaambulance...

I doubt this is how you really feel. You're not stupid enough. My diagnosis is that you see what you've done wrong but the ego hurts. Tip: it's much easier to accept that you were a n00b and move on - everyone does silly things. You'll only prolong the ego ache otherwise.

Now go do something useful with your talent. Go moan to people who actually need to hear it - like some Zuma supporters. No-one on this forum is learning anything new from you.

[ryanrich]

[sarcasm]

What an absolutely brilliant post, how did you manage to hit the nail so squarely on the head!

[/sarcasm]

Please enlighten me as to what I have done wrong? I have merely posted comments in this thread that relate to the discussion at hand, as well as presented some facts and news articles that support my statements. Then in marched the denial brigade to start accusing me of bad mouthing the country...

As you say though, it is indeed pointless, because people with blinkers that big on can't be taught anything new.

My apologies for posting relevant arguments and information relating to the thread. I'll make a note to not post anything further unless it has a positive spin to it. I wouldn't want to offend any more ostriches...

[D3PART3D]

Ryan, it's not that people disagree with you,I agree with 90% of what you're saying. It's just that we don't like focusing on the negative 24/7.

You know that girl who's insecure about her looks and needs to talk about it all day?.. Annoying huh?

Same thing.

It's emo and depressing and you should go on about it when it's practical, not at the Prom.

[ryanrich]

Yes, but I don't constantly go on about the negative aspects of this country. In fact I have a thread dedicated to only positive things as well...

I simply thought this was a thread to discuss the matric results of 2008, so was posting some information regarding the results. This information just happened to be negative, I didn't plan it I swear...

On the positive side, and getting back to the topic. I see a girl here in the Western Cape has achieved 10 distinctions out of 11 subjects! So there are some absolutely brilliant results from certain individuals as well...

I had enough of a hard time with my 6 normal subjects. I really don't know how these guys cope with 11...

[WiK1d]

well comparing a 62% pass rate on the new curriculum to the 20% pass rate on the old curriculum is like comparing melros cheese to aged cheddar . both are good but aged cheddar is better.

The level of education students recieved on the old curriculum is vastly supperior to that of the new one.
example: When I was im grade 12 the difference betwean math high grade and math standard grade was based on the amount of work done in a certain time frame. Now that they have made math a required subject the difference is higher grade is still higher grade but standard grade you now need to be able to build a octagon out of jellytots and touth pics.

I base what i have written here by comparing my school work (2007, my year was the last to recieve education in the previous curriculum) to my brothers (2008 new curriculum)

So my thoughts on the matter is that a 20% pass rate of 2007 is vastly superior to that of the 62% pass rate of this year.

Oh and on a side note congrats to all the people who passed this year

Wow.

Back on to the big bold part, what the hell have you been smoking?

[Bladerunner]

well comparing a 62% pass rate on the new curriculum to the 20% pass rate on the old curriculum is like comparing melros cheese to aged cheddar . both are good but aged cheddar is better.

The level of education students recieved on the old curriculum is vastly supperior to that of the new one.
example: When I was im grade 12 the difference betwean math high grade and math standard grade was based on the amount of work done in a certain time frame. Now that they have made math a required subject the difference is higher grade is still higher grade but standard grade you now need to be able to build a octagon out of jellytots and touth pics.

I base what i have written here by comparing my school work (2007, my year was the last to recieve education in the previous curriculum) to my brothers (2008 new curriculum)

So my thoughts on the matter is that a 20% pass rate of 2007 is vastly superior to that of the 62% pass rate of this year.

Oh and on a side note congrats to all the people who passed this year

Wow.

Back on to the big bold part, what the hell have you been smoking?

[ryanrich]

Check this parody out, I LOLed!

Outcomes-based Matrics deconstruct results, reject colonial alphabet

The first South African school-leavers to write the same national outcomes-based examination have deconstructed their results, acknowledging historically unjust grading systems while examining their own emotional response to completing a discovery-based secondary education. However those polled did not know which letter came after D.

Speaking to journalists this morning Deputy Education Minister Xoliswa Seespot-Runn congratulated the country's 600,000 matriculants on their results, which she said was evidence that most candidates had managed to find examination venues and figured out how to open question papers and orient them the right way up.

"That is a triumph in itself," she said. "Outcomes-based learning is all about self-discovery, so it is wonderful that our learners have reached a level where they know which end of a pencil to hold."

She also praised teachers for embracing the ethos of outcomes-based teaching.

"OBE is not about being prescriptive or telling people what to think, or indeed how to think.

"Thanks to our dedicated cadre of teachers, who have told their learners nothing about anything, our young people have been left entirely alone to work out answers for themselves.

"This has translated into the most wonderful and creative answers to exam questions. For instance, one candidate proved that 3x times 4x equals porridge. That's exactly the kind of lateral thinking we want to encourage."

Asked why 97 percent of those who passed the exam did not know which letter came after D in the alphabet, Seespot-Runn said that the alphabet was considered a colonial and prescriptive tool of mental oppression.

"Also nobody gets an E any more," she added. "If we see a learner struggling there is a wonderful educational tool called Microsoft Excel, where you just press a button on a spreadsheet and all the marks round up to the nearest 50 percent."

Meanwhile the country's top pupils spent the day celebrating by locking themselves in their bedrooms and sobbing for two hours while trying to understand a numb sense of anticlimax after twelve years of anxiety.

The top achiever in the country was Chrizelda-Marie-Sunette-Chantay van Blerk of Pretoria's Christelike Hoër Vir Vervelige Meisiekinders, who achieved 103 percent in each of her nine subjects.

Chrizelda-Marie-Sunette-Chantay was unavailable for comment as she was in her bedroom sobbing uncontrollably while staring into the abyss that was the rest of her life, but her parents Vleis and Omo told journalists that her favourite subjects had been Parental Pressure Orientation, Middle-Class Aspirational Studies, and Blind Ambition.

[Tribble]

ROTFLMHO - thanks Ryan - you have made my day. Loved it!!!!!!!!

[RiaX]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

BTW why they call students learners and not students

feel sorry for these new set of soon to be 1st-year students ... school got easier but oh boy are they in for a suprise

[WiK1d]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

BTW why they call students learners and not students

feel sorry for these new set of soon to be 1st-year students ... school got easier but oh boy are they in for a suprise

Stop generalising

[RiaX]

yeah sure some will find it easy.......... but when they reach further on towards final year most (maybe all) will why did i stress for matric ?

[WiK1d]

will why did i stress for matric ?

Because you didn't study hard enough

[I34z1k]

BAHAHAHHA!!

Riax. Not everyone's like you.

[RiaX]

will why did i stress for matric ?

Because you didn't study hard enough

lol actually true that still got 5 As though

[ryanrich]

I found this story very sad, but very inspiring...

Matric loses valiant battle
06/01/2009 22:51 - (SA)

Swartruggens - A matric pupil from North West lost his year-long battle with cancer one day after receiving his results.

Half an hour after Jaco Marais, 18, heard the news while lying in his hospital bed that he had passed, he went into a coma. He died the next day.

He got a distinction in Life Orientation and had passed with exemption.

Jaco, a pupil at Koster High School in North West, heard in January last year that he had a rare type of bone cancer.

Although he initially got chemotherapy, doctors prepared him and his parents for the worst: he would probably not complete his matric year, because this type of sarcoma is malignant and spreads rapidly.

"Despite this devastating news, Jaco lived the last months of his life to the full.

"He still played rugby and, despite the pain, wrote the preliminary and final exams," said his father, Koos, a farmer, on Tuesday.

Jaco died last Sunday, December 28.

Shoulder blade removed

In February, shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer, his right shoulder blade was removed.

He was also treated for tumours in his right lung.

In April and May he got chemotherapy in Pretoria and played his last rugby games - as a forward - without a right shoulder blade.

In June he was operated on again to remove tumours from his lungs. At that point the doctors recommended that they stop the chemotherapy.

In September, during his preliminary exam, Jaco received radiation treatment for the pain.

"He was determined to write every subject himself. He used his right hand, although he had been taught to write with his left when he was in hospital," said his mother, Ria.

In October Jaco attended the matric farewell with his girlfriend, Sumaria Rautenbach.

"He always wanted to arrive at the matric farewell in a combine harvester, and I took him in one," said Koos.

'His attitude made us persevere'

In November he wrote the matric exam. He wrote three of the papers himself and answered the others orally.

"His positive attitude made us persevere," said his mother.

"Not for a single moment did he pity himself. He continued hunting, driving the tractor and pottering on the farm. He never lost courage or the hope that he might recover.

"He wanted to do his LLB degree at North West University's Potchefstroom campus and was going to stay in one of the hostels."

On 12 December Jaco was admitted to hospital in Rustenburg.

His lungs were riddled with cancer and he couldn't breathe without a machine.

Over Christmas he went home for three days before being admitted again on 26 December.

On 27 December the Department of Education made a concession and released his results a day earlier.

"He was so happy that he had passed so well," his mother said.

The North West Provincial Department of Education honoured Jaco with a golden award for his courage and perseverance.

[justinufo]

That is sad.