MOE discontinued for Grade 12 learners as from 2020
The MEO was introduced as part of the progressed learner policy to combat the high drop-out rate in the FET phase, to assist academically struggling learners by allowing them to complete their examinations over two sittings.
In compliance with the resolution taken by the Council for Education Ministers (CEM) in 2019, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) will no longer implement the Multiple Examination Opportunities (MEO) from 2020 onwards.
In his visit to the Mpumalanga Province, Mr Mweli warned school principals that following the termination of MEO this year, the majority of provinces will be required to monitor schools regularly. “In other words, this implies that whether a learner is struggling or not, they will have to register for all seven subjects and write them as part of the NSC Examinations,” highlighted Mr Mweli.
The MEO was introduced as part of the progressed learner policy to combat the high drop-out rate in the FET phase, to assist academically struggling learners by allowing them to complete their examinations over two sittings. In terms of the progression criteria, learners were only entitled to the MEO if they had been progressed from Grade 11 and had completed all their school-based assessment requirements in all seven subjects.
In addition, schools were required to consider learners for the MEO if they had attended school regularly and had not been absent for more than 20 days without a valid reason. The policy was also meant for learners who might have had fared well in the preparatory examination in all subjects and subsequently failed a minimum of three subjects.
However, the CEM decided to discontinue the policy because it had compromised the DBE’s efforts in addressing issues of quality and efficiency in schools.
“Instead of assisting vulnerable learners to attain a matric certificate, it was allowing schools to cull learners through this process and not adequately support them through the multiple examination opportunities,” said Basic Education Minister, Mrs Angie Motshekga, briefing the media on the policy termination.
“The result of this policy is that since the 2015 NSC examinations, there have been large numbers of NSC candidates sitting for the examinations, despite not having fulfilled the formal requirements for passing Grade 11. Historically, we observe high repetition rates and high dropout rates in Grades 10, 11 and 12,” said the Minister.
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