Don’t twist Umalusi figures
by Dr Mafu Rakometsi, Umalusi chief executive
2012-02-05 10:00
Umalusi, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training, would like to clarify some of the issues that could lead to misinterpretation in the article written by your journalists (Jacques Pauw, Jacques Dommisse and Jeanne van der Merwe) that appeared in the City Press dated January 29 with the headline, “1 in 6 Matrics got less than 10% for Maths”.
Umalusi wishes to clarify that Media 24 was provided with the same information that was provided to the South African public in February 2011 with respect to the 2010 National Senior Certificate examinations.
The data provided were the individual subject standardisation data and related only to the external examination component (which contributes 75% of the promotion mark). This point needs to be emphasised. The statistics and figures quoted reflect only the external component and do not include the internal assessment. This means that the final learner performance could be significantly different.
It would therefore be inaccurate and misleading for your journalists to make the claims they are making in the article.
Umalusi further wishes to clarify that the statistics and figures indicated in the article reflect the analysis conducted by Media 24 and that Umalusi was not party to this analysis. The formula and methods used to arrive at the conclusions that Media 24 has written about are unknown to Umalusi.
It must also be noted that Umalusi did not effect any adjustments to mathematics and physical sciences raw marks in 2011. It is prudent that the information Umalusi makes available in line with the promotion of access to information should be used with circumspection, and we should avoid casting aspersions on the processes and the parties involved in the critical processes of assessing the work of the learners.
Any attempt to give a different twist to the figures provided by the Umalusi Council is regretted.
» City Press will report on our methodology next week