The number of pupils repeating Grades 10 and 11 dropped dramatically in 2020 after tests at school were "relaxed" to compensate for learning losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is one of the findings of a study by a team of researchers from Stellenbosch University released in December 2023.

Titled "What rich new education data can tell us", the report stated that the "leniency" in assessments improved school-based assessment (SBA) marks and "led to more learners advancing to higher grades and a significant reduction in school dropout rates".

The SBA includes oral tests in languages as well as class tests, projects and assignments. The marks awarded are used to calculate a pupil's final mark in a subject at the end of the year.

Asked to comment on the study, Professor Labby Ramrathan from the University of KwaZulu-Natal said the drop in the repetition rate "is linked to the way we test pupils".

"We have focused a lot on end-of-year exams with grade transition outcomes at the expense of learning outcomes. There is a recognition that formative assessments across the year favours learning and knowing," he said.

"Going forward, more emphasis will be placed on assessment for learning which is largely school-based and which resonates with the realities of the learners."

Data that the Stellenbosch study was based on was extracted from the South African School Administration Management System (SA-SAMS), including the Data Driven Districts (DDD) information for Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo, and the Learner Unit Record Information Tracking System (Lurits) data.

According to the report, one of the measures implemented was "to introduce more leniency in assessments to ensure fairness to students who could not attend classes regularly due to school closures or rotating timetables introduced to maintain social distancing".

"Curriculum coverage significantly declined in 2020 and to a lesser extent in 2021. This reduced the content that learners were tested on in assessments, leading to an improvement in school-based assessment results that made it easier for students to pass and thus progress to the next grade."

The report stated that the education authorities considered it fair to pupils "who had missed so much school through no fault of their own to be subject to more lenient promotion rules".

For Grades 10 and 11, the Department of Basic Education increased the SBA component of the promotion requirements from 25% to 60%.

Controlled tests replaced exams at the end of the year, and it was required that these tests "should only be set on content taught".

The researchers said that adjustments were also made to the assessment rules for Grades 4 to 11.

For example, the promotion requirement for the home language was reduced from 50% to 45%, and for the first additional language, usually English, from 40% to 35%.

"For maths, the promotion requirement of 40% was dropped altogether, meaning that if all other requirements were met, mathematics performance would be condoned, irrespective of performance.

"Moreover, it was explicitly stated that learners whose maths Grade 9 mark has been condoned would still be able to choose to continue with maths in Grade 10."

The researchers found a roughly 50% reduction in the number of children repeating Grades 10 and 11 in 2020, compared to 2019, "before they again rose slightly in 2021 and again in 2022, but remained significantly lower than in 2019".

"This decrease in repetition rates meant that more students were able to advance to higher grades, and school dropout rates decreased significantly.

"Particularly, the historically high repetition rates in Grade 10 that had discouraged many learners from persevering to Grade 12 resulted in less students reaching matric and participating in the matriculation exam."

The proportion of pupils repeating Grade 10 in the Eastern Cape dropped from 34% in 2019 to 19% in 2020, while the Grade 10 repetition rate in Gauteng, over the same period, decreased from 28% to 18%. Limpopo mirrored the trend, with Grade 10 repeaters declining from 42% to 21%.

Grade 11 repeaters in the Eastern Cape dropped from 28% in 2019 to 13% in 2020, from 18% to 8% in Gauteng, and from 37% to 15% in Limpopo.

One of the researchers, Professor Servaas van der Berg, said the study used administrative data over several years to analyse various aspects of the education system, including pupil flows between schools and provinces and from grade to grade.

He said pupils have to choose in Grade 10 between maths and maths literacy and that many university degrees require a pass mark of 60% and more in maths.

"Though 36% of matric candidates wrote maths, rather than maths literacy, only 6% achieved a mark of 60% or higher, and 44% scored below 30%.

"Thus choosing to do maths does not really enable many learners to have a wider choice of degree at university, while weak performance in maths contributes a lot to failing matric."

He said it was important to encourage pupils who perform poorly in maths in Grade 9 to rather elect to do maths literacy from Grade 10 onwards.

"Different provinces see this differently. For instance, Gauteng actively discourages weak learners from taking maths: only 31% of Gauteng matriculants wrote maths."

He said that, in contrast, Eastern Cape and Limpopo appear to encourage maths participation as 47% of Eastern Cape matriculants and 42% of Limpopo matriculants wrote maths.

"Compared to language subjects, where failure rates are generally quite low, learners struggle more with maths and maths literacy. For instance, only 1% of matriculants scored below 30% in English first additional language, compared to 44% in maths and 27% in maths literacy."

He said that because of the large learning losses due to the pandemic, "improving performance in maths and maths literacy needs special attention".

Van der Berg said the "leniency" measures implemented by the Department of Basic Education during the pandemic still apply and "as a result, survival to Grade 12 has increased a lot".

"However, to assist learners who have learning gaps because of the pandemic, it is important that provinces implement special measures to cover some of the learning losses, and not only target those approaching the matric examination," he said.

Professor Loyiso Jita, the dean of the education faculty at the University of the Free State, said it was not surprising that the repetition rate dropped in 2020 and possibly in 2021.

"It's not surprising, nor is it a bad thing that we see better progression rates during those difficult years."

He said the key question now was how some of the learning losses should be addressed in the years ahead.

"Professionally, it makes sense to place more emphasis on continuous school-based assessments as that provides the required local feedback to teachers on learning and teaching," he said. 

"However, there are times when end-of-year and standardised exams are required to get feedback on the entire system and to establish standardised learning outcomes at points in the learner progression. So, the choice is not between the various forms of assessments, but each has a specific purpose in the system."