IEB National Senior Certificate 2010
In 2010, 8285 learners from 172 schools across the country (including the Abitur-NSC candidates) wrote the IEB National Senior Certificate examination. 153 more learners wrote the IEB examination in 2010 than in 2009. 98.38% passed the examination as a whole, a slight increase of just on 1% from 2009. All of these candidates achieved a pass that is good enough to enter tertiary study at one of the three levels. 81.53% of the cohort achieved entry to degree study, a 2% increase from last year while 14.45% qualified for entry to diploma study. 2.4% achieved entry for study at the Higher Certificate level.
The IEB continues to encourage the development of mathematical competence among learners at its schools. Since the inception of the NSC in 2008, participation in Mathematics Paper 3 at the IEB has increased by 68,5% from 1414 candidates in 2008 to 2383 candidates in 2010. This represents 41% of IEB Mathematics learners and almost 30% of all IEB learners.
"The IEB is proud of the achievements of learners in the schools that write the National Senior Certificate through the IEB. These performances reflect the dedication of the teachers to the very important work they do, of inspiring learners and ensuring they have the fundamental knowledge and have mastered the key concepts required in each discipline to ensure future success. They reflect too the amount of work that learners have done to ensure that they know and understand the important aspects of the subjects they have studied. Their education, as reflected in their results, ensures them of a successful future in their selected area of study or occupation," says Anne Oberholzer, Chief Executive Officer of the IEB.
This year the IEB in conjunction with the Zenex Foundation, the Anglo-American Chairman's Fund and the University of Pretoria, initiated and oversaw the benchmarking study of the National Senior Certificate undertaken by UK NARIC, the United Kingdom's National Agency responsible for providing information and advice about vocational, academic and professional skills and qualifications from all over the world.
"From that study we have been reassured that the NSC is a qualification with an underlying level that is both robust and fit for the purposes of examining senior secondary school levels. In terms of the qualification's comparability, the report concludes that the National Senior Certificate at Grade 12 is broadly comparable to the GCE Advanced Subsidiary (i.e. AS-level). This conclusion was supported by a similar study carried out by Umalusi in 2010," explains Oberholzer. 2010 also marked 21 years of the existence of the IEB.