The Matrix Class of 2021 has been disrupted in their schooling for the past two years, and the impact of losing more than 50% of their Grade 11 year has had serious consequences for the class.

Speaking at Umalusi’s standardization meeting held in Pretoria on Thursday, Department of Basic Education Director General Mathanzima Mweli said the important foundation that Grade 11 work is building in preparation for grade 12 was weakened.

“We will therefore see the deleterious effect of the loss of teaching time, in particular on subjects which require a lot of time such as languages, and subjects which depend heavily on the language for their usefulness, such as mathematical literacy”, did he declare.

The chief executive said that standardizing the NSC 2021 exams is a special meeting that deserves special attention for a number of reasons.

“These learners not only had to deal with reduced exposure to face-to-face teaching and learning, but they also had to deal with the anxieties and trauma of COVID-19. Countless families have been brought to life. pushed to the limits of financial endurance with loss of jobs and income.

“Not only that, but also many families have lost family members and friends to the pandemic,” Mweli said.

He said that by examining the science behind how students learn, the 2021 cohort has been hit hard in their 11th year due to the reduction in teaching time.

Mweli pointed out that learning is reinforced by practice recovery, which should be done multiple times and over time, including reviewing topic content over multiple sessions with good, specific and focused feedback from teachers. and others, such as peers.

“The promotion of 2021 was deprived of this advantage. The unique learning environment necessitated a robust, focused and differentiated learner support program for this cohort. The sector has increased not only the number of beneficiary learners and the scope of interventions, but also the number and type of interventions. offered to this class, ”he said.

Mweli said the class of 2021 is also the first class to be featured with changes to Section 4 of the Program Evaluation Policy Statements (CAPS), which impacted 20 of the 67 subjects in this class.

“Another unforeseen hurdle this class faced was the load shedding that would have hampered their final exam preparations.

“A total of 733,746 full-time applicants have registered to take the NSC 2021 exam – the largest full-time cohort in recent years. A total of 123,487 more full-time applicants and 46,942 applicants to more part-time registrants to take the exam, ”he said.

The CEO said that of the 733,746 candidates who registered for the exam, 700,604 candidates took the exam, reflecting the lowest percentage of “no show” (4.5%) during the course. in recent years.

“The increase in the number of full-time applicants can be attributed to a number of factors and one of the key factors is the change in the assessment regime, in Grades 10 and 11, which was motivated by the need to create maximum time for teaching and learning, ”he said.

He added that the grade 11 academic assessment has been increased from 25% to 60% and exams have been replaced with controlled tests.

“Therefore, the change in assessment practices brought about a different result. These learners would therefore have taken their first full exam in grade 12, which was part of the preparatory exam, ”said Mweli.

Mweli said one of the goals of standardization is to ensure fairness from year to year, and the downsides suffered by the 2021 class cannot be ignored, as part of “our social justice obligations.”

Meanwhile, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is expected to announce the results of the NSC 2021 exams on January 20, 2022.

(With contributions from the South African government press release)