In South Africa, matriculation (or matric) is the final year of high school and the qualification received on graduating from high school, and the minimum university entrance requirements. The first formal examination was conducted in South Africa under the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1858.[1] In general usage, the school-leaving exams, which are government-administered, are known as the "matric exams"; by extension, students in the final year of high school (grade 12) are known as "matriculants" or, more commonly, "matrics". Once the Matric year has been passed, students are said to have "matriculated".
Officially, the qualification obtained at the end of secondary schooling is the National Senior Certificate, and the school-leaving examinations are the "Senior Certificate Examinations". The National Senior Certificate can be completed through either the Department of Education or the Independent Examination Board. Students who fulfill certain requirements (an achievement rating of 4 (50% - 59%) or better in four (4) designated subjects) in their Senior Certificate results receive a Matriculation Endorsement/Bachelor's Pass on their certificates; this endorsement is the minimum requirement for admission to a bachelor's degree at any South African university, set by the Department of Basic Education. Students applying to a South African university with foreign school qualifications can obtain a "Matriculation Exemption" to show that they meet the same standards.
This multiple meaning can lead to confusion; for example, the statement that a person "passed matric" or "has their matric" may mean either that they received a Senior Certificate (i.e. they finished high school) or specifically that they received a Senior Certificate with Matriculation Endorsement (i.e. they are eligible to enter university).
South African universities do not set their own entrance examinations, although many use standardized entrance tests of linguistic, numerical and mathematical ability, called the National Benchmark Tests,[2] split into the AQL Test (Academic and Quantitative Literacy) and the Mathematics Test.
Before the 1990s, the standard Matric Certificate with Endorsement was worded as "Examination result - Passed with full exemption". This wording meant that the candidate passed their NSC exams with exemption from entrance exams when applying for University entrance. As of 2005, the new passing standards are Certificate, Diploma, and Bachelor.[3]
The National Senior Certificate or NSC is the current matriculation (matric) certificate, with grade 12 as the matriculation grade. The NSC, previously known as the Further Education and Training Certificate or FETC, replaced the Senior Certificate effectively in 2008, having been phased in with grade 10 in 2006.
Students study at least seven subjects: two of the eleven official South African languages one of which must be at "home language" level, either Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy, Life Orientation, and three elective subjects. Students have the option of either taking the NSC (National Senior Certificate) or the NCV (National Certificate Vocational).
Subjects are taken on the same level – the earlier higher/standard grade split is obsolete. The three pass levels have different requirements. The higher certificate requires 40% or higher in the home language as well as in two other subjects and at least 30% in three other subjects. Students who pass the matric with a higher certificate level cannot enroll for a university degree nor a diploma at any institution of higher learning.[clarification needed] The mean mark in any subject is approximately 55. Only a small proportion of candidates score an 'A' in any subject (from as little as 2% to a maximum of about 10% in subjects taken by highly select groups). A further 8 – 15% are likely to gain a 'B' and about 20 – 25% achieve a 'C' grade. The National Senior Certificate is a group certificate and records an aggregate mark.
The Department of Basic Education is responsible for general educational policy to be implemented by nine provincial education departments and private providers such as the Independent Examinations Board (IEB). Nine provincial examination boards and three independent boards, of which the IEB is the biggest examine students. The IEB operates on a national level, catering primarily to independent schools.
Students study at least 7 subjects: 4 compulsory and 3-4 optional. All subjects are set at one grade only and are no longer set at Higher or Standard Grade. Not all schools offer the full range of elective subjects as listed here. Each school may offer subjects specific to its academic orientation. For example, agriculture schools will offer agriculture-oriented subjects whereas technical schools will offer practical and mechanical-oriented subjects.
Learners must study 4 compulsory subjects:
Learners must also study at least 3 subjects from the following:
Life Orientation (colloquially abbreviated as "LO") has been introduced into the senior high school phase as an examination subject and is designed to cover non-academic skills needed in everyday life such as:
There are three types of subjects:
Continuous Assessment (CASS) includes all the tests, examinations, tasks, activities, orals and projects done throughout the year. Results are usually out of 400 marks.
Language compensation attempts to adjust for the difficulties faced by students whose mother tongue is neither English nor Afrikaans. It is described by several sources:
This kind of compensation impacts pass rates, but provides a significant impact at the upper end of the scale, affecting those applying for admission to university. For example, a qualifying learner obtaining 95% would receive 95 x 1.05 = 99.75% (which rounds to 100%). A learner obtaining 40% would receive 40 x 1.05 = 42.0%.
In addition to minimum grades required in each subject, universities either set their entrance tests and/or use the National Benchmark Tests (NBT).[7] To study for a bachelor's degree at a South African university requires that the applicant has at least an NSC endorsed by Umalusi, with a pass of 30% in the chosen university's language of learning and teaching, as well as a level 4 or higher in the following list of designated, 19-credit subjects:[8]