Pupils doing matric this year could find it harder than ever to achieve that all elusive ‘A’…
A government policy that gave matrics whose first language was not English or Afrikaans 5 percent of their mark as a bonus in subjects including Geography and Maths has been scrapped.

This year’s matric pupils will be the first not to benefit from the policy since 1999. This will theoretically make these the toughest exams that non-English and Afrikaans first language matriculants have ever faced.

The rationale for the policy, intended as an interim measure, was to compensate for the disadvantage faced by pupils forced to write their final exams in a language which was not their mother tongue.

The government now believes the problems students faced in the past have been solved.

The policy meant that if a pupil’s original mark in a non-language subject such as History or Economics was 50 percent, they would receive an additional 2.5 percentage points.

Basic Education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said the department was “confident” that discontinuing the policy would not adversely affect the performance of pupils.

Others differ in opinion and feel that results will plummet to record lows.

Others stress that before the safety net is withdrawn, English should have been introduced earlier into the school curriculum. As this is not the case…

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