By Wynand van Heerden, co-founder and owner of Edify
On the face of it, the 82.9% matric pass rate for 2023 is an invitation to jump onto the bandwagon of optimism and celebrate. However, as mentioned in the Daily Maverick’s newsletter on 29 January, we need to consider that 39% of learners (450 000 in total) who started Grade 1 with this cohort didn’t matriculate.
Taking a look at STEM subjects, the 2023 matric Maths pass rate increased from 53.8% in 2020 to 55% in 2022 and 63.5% in 2023, according to the 2023 National Senior Certificate Exam Results Technical Report. This seems like an excellent improvement, especially considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; but we need to bear in mind that of the 1 153 846 learners in this cohort who started in Grade 1, only 22.7% (262 016 in total) wrote Core Maths and only 14.4% (166 337 in total) passed the subject in matric 2023 – according to the 2023 NSC Exam Results School Subject Report.
I think these results would have been far better if the majority of learners had access to extra lessons. Certainly, extra lessons help learners who are struggling, but they can help any learner who wants to improve their marks – those who want to go from a B to an A, for example, or even top achievers who want to improve their A in the 80s to a mark over 90%. Extra lessons, when conducted in the right way, can help learners reach their full potential.
The improvement in marks in extra-lesson centre, Edify’s particular class of 2023 matrics is testament to this: the average improvement in marks from the time students joined us until their finals was 22%.
Just under 20% of our Maths students achieved marks over 90% in matric, five achieving more than 97%, and 40% of students exceeding 80%. One learner joined Edify in Grade 10 with a mark of 32% in Maths, and achieved 89% in his matric finals. Another three learners joined just after their prelim exams in 2023, and their Maths marks improved by 40% in their finals just two months later.
We attribute our success to the quality of our teachers and a differentiated teaching model, where each learner is taught according to their specific needs. The key criteria for teachers are excellent subject knowledge, a passion for teaching, and the ability to relate to and inspire learners.
