The Free State's Grade 10 pupils were the province's worst performers in the final exams in 2023 after a staggering 37.2% or 23 671 of the 63 655 candidates who wrote went on to fail.

Their Grade 8 counterparts also fared dismally after 25.9% or 17 386 of the 66 889 who wrote, flunked.

Provincial education department spokesperson Howard Ndaba said they were concerned the pass percentage in both grades dropped by 4% from 78.1% in 2022 to 74.1% in 2023 in Grade 8 and from 66.8 to 62.8% in Grade 10.

"Both grades declined by 4% in 2023 while they showed an increase in the pass rate from 2021 to 2022."

He added that due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Grades 8 and 10 and the lower grades experienced high learning losses "that manifests itself in the lack of acquisition of basic foundational skills in the languages and maths".

A year before the pandemic, the department started to implement a support programme targeting Grade 8 and 10 "to ensure that more learners offer maths, science and accounting in grades 10 to 12," said Ndaba.

"The idea is to realise the National Development Plan of increasing the number of learners offering these subjects as well as an increase in the number of learners offering the subjects in the technical vocational and occupational streams."

He added the learning recovery programme was in full swing, focusing on maths and languages in Grades 1 to 11.

In addition to this, there was also a dedicated professional development programme targeting novice teachers and those struggling to teach.

Ndaba attributed the high failure rate in Grade 10 to the absence of foundational skills in Grade 8 pupils which resulted in poor performance in the languages and maths.

"Learners must pass maths at 40% and the home language at 50% to pass the grade.

"The cumulative nature of the learning gaps in literacy and numeracy requires the province to continue to sustain its support programme over a period to turn the tide."

Ndaba said Grade 10 was the first year in which pupils started with subjects of their choice and many could not cope with the workload in maths, physical science, accounting, and economics.

"The department started a special programme for Grades 9 and 10 in 2023 where more focus was placed on the development of Grade 10 teachers in especially maths, physical science and accounting."

He added the province would continue to step up this programme this year to address deficiencies in these subjects and the languages.

"As part of closing the learning gaps, the department together with the schools will be administering the baseline tests to give our teachers exactly the content areas that need attention before the end of the first term," Ndaba said.

Ndaba said more focus would be placed on Grade 8s this year and they were given readers in all home languages, a Grade 8 maths revision book, and an activity book for natural sciences.

Reacting to the Grades 8 and 10 failure rate, Professor Servaas van der Berg from Stellenbosch University added there was no similar data available on the 2023 pass rates for other provinces "so it is not possible to compare Free State with other provinces or nationally".

"But clearly, these pass rates are low which would lead many learners to repeat or even drop out. Before the pandemic, Grade 8 and 10 repetition rates in the Free State were the second highest after Limpopo."

He said in the past it was quite common for pupils who were over age because of failing previous grades and who then failed Grade 10 to drop out of school.

"Since the pandemic, more lenient assessment policies increased pass rates, especially in Grades 10 and 11. Yet it appears that such pass rates are again starting to decline."

Van der Berg added one of the possible factors for the high failure rate in Grade 10 was that pupils might only be held back once in each of the four school phases, namely, Grades 1 to 3, 4 to 6, 7 to 9 and 10 and 12.

"This means that learners who failed Grade 8 cannot be held back again in Grade 9 so many may be promoted to Grade 10 without having performed adequately in Grade 9 thus leaving them with an inadequate foundation for Grade 10."

He said Grade 10 was the start of the Further Education and Training (FET) phase where pupils must select the subjects they wanted to pursue up to matric.

"A problem that is often encountered is that some learners choose to do maths rather than maths literacy even though they may have performed poorly in maths at earlier grades.

"This should be discouraged if their maths foundations are weak.

"Learning losses that occurred due to less time being spent in school during the pandemic year has left a large gap and this is especially the case for maths."

Van der Berg added it was important for provinces to do more to address the continuing effects of the pandemic learning losses through special initiatives to support schools and pupils who needed such support.

"Systematic programmes to identify stragglers and to provide them with the necessary support are essential.

"Grade 8 learners should get special attention as they are new in high school and often out of their depth as they come from many primary schools with varying assessment standards."

He said it was crucial to identify pupils who were having difficulties adjusting in Grade 8 in time and to give them special attention.

The dean of the education faculty at the University of Pretoria, Professor Chika Sehoole, added Grade 8 was the first grade into high school "so this could be a phenomenon of transition from primary to high school where learners might be struggling to deal with that transition".

"Concerning Grade 10, this is the first year of the FET phase.

"In the past few years, the Free State was accused of retaining poor performing learners at Grade 11 to boost the prospects of good Grade 12 results."

He said the province should undertake a proper diagnostic assessment of the poor performance in these two grades.

Professor of practice at the University of Johannesburg, Mary Metcalfe, said the Free State's Grade 10 failure rate "was consistent with what we know about the high repetition rates in Grade 10".

"The Grade 8 failure rate stands out as higher than the earlier grades in primary schools in the Free State.

"The recent RESEP [Research on Socio-Economic Policy] research which uses school level data shows that across provinces there is an increase in repetition [and therefore failure] in Grade 8, the first year of high school."

She added a possible reason for the high failure rate in Grade 10 was that it was the first year of the FET phase and of intensive preparation for the NSC (National Senior Certificate) written in Grade 12 and was somewhat of a "gear shift" in expectations.

My position is that we need to improve reading and mathematics performance from the foundation phase [Grades R to 3], as these are the basis for learning across the curriculum. This requires greater professional support for teachers. Rather than costly 'quick fixes' for these grades, we need to strengthen teaching and learning at all grades.

The deputy dean of research and postgraduate studies at the University of the Western Cape, Rouaan Maarman, said his reaction to the high failure rate was one of disbelief.

"It demonstrates that the Free State Education Department failed to attend to the learning losses of the Covid-19 interrupted schooling years."

He added the overall development of pupils was delayed by the Covid-19-interrupted years for, example, reading and writing.

"There has also been wide reporting of other social challenges during and after the Covid years, for example, teenage pregnancies, crime among teenagers, etc."

Maarman said the basics of learning and teaching in schools should be intensified, for example, attendance of pupils and teachers, the professionalism of teachers, good leadership from principals and teaching to learn.

"Without these basics, learners make their own sense of what and how to learn instead of being guided by the teachers who are professionals."

Professor Labby Ramrathan from the University of KwaZulu-Natal said the variance in the pass rate needed deeper exploration.

"The high failure rate is very concerning and questions the state of schooling in the Free State."

He added the progression policy only allowed for a pupil to be retained in a school phase for one additional year.

"Grades 8 and 10 are two different school phases and as such could account for the high failure rates. Another reason could be related to learners' lack of interest in learning."

Ramrathan said schools needed to become functional and there should be more oversight of teaching and learning at schools.

"More finances need to be provided for education and appropriately qualified teachers should be employed."