News / Press Release
Reporter pours cold water on Girls' performance at Grade 7
05 Dec 2016 at 13:52hrs | Views
From a woman's point of view, it was one of the best headings in the Saturday 3rd December edition of the "Chronicle ": (Girls outshine boys at Grade 7). What an achievement. It is clear the girls had a nearly 5% lead over boys. This achievement is unfortunately quickly watered down as the article further shows that the high pass rate of the girls is attributed to their performance in indigenous languages "compared to Mathematics, General Paper and English Language". The generic statistics do not unpack the relative gender balance nor the difference in the performance between rural and urban schools. It does not show if any of the girls passed well in other subjects other than in indigenous languages giving an insinuation of the inferiority of girls and their inability to tackle mathematics and other subjects.
It would be fairer if there was a breakdown of the top performers by gender in the different categories. If the information exists, it may be of interest and relevance if the location, endowment and gender disaggregation of the student enrolment is used to arrive at the conclusions
The import of this is that whilst the girls did well, it was not in the more prestigious subjects given that the past months have seen unprecedented focus on the much acclaimed Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects although not all offered at Grade 7 level. One wonders whether the girls could only do well a in indigenous language which has serious implications that require urgent attention to ensure that girls compete on an equal footing with boys.
The pitfalls of taking statistics at face value and out of context became even more pronounced when it comes to comparison of girls' language performance. The article shows that Shona had the highest candidature but there is no attempt to explain why. For instance that Shona includes Karanga, a language spoken by the most populous ethnic group in the country as well as other language groupings, Zezuru, Korekore, Manyika and previously Ndau.
Shona as many may recall, got its boost way back in 1957 with the publication of the standard Shona dictionary whilst other languages except Sindebele have only become examinable recently. This, together with smaller populations may account for the few candidates who took Kalanga. It is very unfortunate that the reporter (may be unintentionally) seems to buttress the President's biased utterances that the Kalanga are uneducated and that they migrate to take up menial jobs in neighbouring countries. On the contrary, Dombodema, Tegwane, Empandeni, Mbakwe and other schools in the Kalanga speaking areas were beacons of education and embraced by locals.
When all is said and done" Well done girls, just diversify and stay in school until you finish. Do not allow anything or anyone to side- track you."
It would be fairer if there was a breakdown of the top performers by gender in the different categories. If the information exists, it may be of interest and relevance if the location, endowment and gender disaggregation of the student enrolment is used to arrive at the conclusions
The import of this is that whilst the girls did well, it was not in the more prestigious subjects given that the past months have seen unprecedented focus on the much acclaimed Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects although not all offered at Grade 7 level. One wonders whether the girls could only do well a in indigenous language which has serious implications that require urgent attention to ensure that girls compete on an equal footing with boys.
The pitfalls of taking statistics at face value and out of context became even more pronounced when it comes to comparison of girls' language performance. The article shows that Shona had the highest candidature but there is no attempt to explain why. For instance that Shona includes Karanga, a language spoken by the most populous ethnic group in the country as well as other language groupings, Zezuru, Korekore, Manyika and previously Ndau.
Shona as many may recall, got its boost way back in 1957 with the publication of the standard Shona dictionary whilst other languages except Sindebele have only become examinable recently. This, together with smaller populations may account for the few candidates who took Kalanga. It is very unfortunate that the reporter (may be unintentionally) seems to buttress the President's biased utterances that the Kalanga are uneducated and that they migrate to take up menial jobs in neighbouring countries. On the contrary, Dombodema, Tegwane, Empandeni, Mbakwe and other schools in the Kalanga speaking areas were beacons of education and embraced by locals.
When all is said and done" Well done girls, just diversify and stay in school until you finish. Do not allow anything or anyone to side- track you."
Source - Mildred Mkandla ZAPU National Secretary for Education
