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The condition of primary and secondary education in the Eastern Cape is bleak, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) reports in a series of nine provincial publications dealing with this issue. Only 49% of the learners in the Eastern Cape passed the matriculation examination in 1996, placing the province seventh of the nine provinces in the country. The results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) showed that Eastern Cape pupils scored below the national average for mathematics and science at Grade 7 as well as Grade 8 levels. According to the Longitudinal Survey of Scholastic Achievement ? which aims to provide information on the level of knowledge and understanding of mathematics, science and English at Grade 9 level ? the Eastern Cape had the second highest mean for mathematics, and the third highest mean for science and English. However, there was no close correlation between the means for the above three subjects at Grade 9 level and the Grade 12 examination pass rate. The provincial reports provide information about an education database at individual school level and include data from several HSRC projects such as the School Register of Needs Survey, the Longitudinal Survey of Scholastic Achievement, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the HSRC Register of Graduates. The educational indicators included in this series of publications provide information on the condition of educational facilities and the extent of educational provision. The availability of resources, materials, equipment and services is also discussed. Indicators of the outputs of the educational system are the matriculation results, the findings of the Longitudinal Survey of Scholastic Achievement in Mathematics, Science and English and the results of the TIMSS. "The HSRC wants to make this valuable information available to all who could benefit from it. Reliable and accessible information on education is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for informed decisions on policy and priorities in education", Mr Charles Sheppard, Director of Education and Training Information Systems at the HSRC said. He added that regularly updated information on strategic educational indicators could facilitate planning, delivery and monitoring of educational provisioning in South Africa and benefit policy makers, managers and students alike. The Schools Register of Needs Survey ? which constitutes one of the most extensive data-gathering and analysis projects in the country and was conducted at 32 000 schools in 1996 ? found that the Eastern Cape school system was characterised by a large number of smaller schools, especially at primary level. A substantial percentage of the schools in the province were found to be in need of repair and a large percentage were found to be without facilities such as telecommunication, electricity and water. Very few schools had modern toilet facilities, while facilities such as media collections, media equipment, general equipment and materials were non-existent in most of the schools. Many of the schools were also without textbooks. More than 50% of the schools had no furniture for administrative staff and the number of desk and chair units needed for learners exceeded 300 000. The learner:classroom ratio was very high in the former Transkei and Ciskei areas, exceeding 60:1 in certain districts. The former Transkei was also characterised by a very high learner:educator ratio, with certain areas exceeding 40:1. The Eastern Cape also had a high percentage of over-age learners (i.e. three or more years older than the average for the grade, with the average for Grade 1 seven years), and more than 30% of all learners in the secondary grades were found to be too old for for the grade they were enrolled in. According to data collected about certain economic variables, the HSRC survey also found that the Eastern Cape had the largest percentage of learners without electricity in their homes. Furthermore, more than half of the learners neither had running water nor flushing toilets in their homes. A comparison of the 1985 and 1994 data recorded in the HSRC's Register of Graduates revealed that the percentage of white graduates in the province had decreased over this period by 43,1%, while the percentage of African graduates had increased by 32,1%. The proportion of graduates from the other population groups had changed only slightly. The data also showed that there had been an increase in the number of graduates in the human and management sciences, while the number of natural sciences graduates had decreased.
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