PBHSOB ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
PRETORIA BOYS HIGH SCHOOL OLD BOYS’ ASSOCIATION
MATRIC RESULTS 2016
The class of 2016 has performed exceptionally well in the recent National Senior Certificate examinations. Apart from obtaining a 100% pass rate, the group obtained the highest Bachelor rate the school has ever had with 95% of a class of 298 candidates achieving this result. We are very proud of all of our boys, many of whom overcame significant challenges on their way to successfully completing their school careers. We wish them well for their future.
Summary of Pass rates and Bachelor rates
The group obtained a 100% pass rate (298 candidates) compared with the National pass rate of 76,2% and the Provincial pass rate of 87%.
The percentage of those obtaining a Bachelor’s pass, which entitles students to pursue further education at university was 94,9% (280 candidates) compared with the National rate of 24,9%, The Provincial rate was unobtainable at this time.
| PBHS Results | 2015 | 2016 |
| Overall Pass % | 100 % | 100 % |
| Bachelors Pass % | 87.6% | 94.9 % |
Statistical breakdown (including Advanced Programme Mathematics written under the IEB)
| PBHS Results | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
| Number of Code 7s (above 80%) | 448 | 482 | 498 | 425 | 389 | 460 | 448 |
| Number of Code 6s (70 – 79%) | 542 | 542 | 597 | 568 | 517 | 467 | 596 |
Individual achievements
| PBHS Results | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
| Candidates with 9 distinctions | 1 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Candidates with 8 distinctions | 3 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Candidates with 7 distinctions | 8 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 14 | 5 |
| Candidates with 6 distinctions | 11 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 10 |
| Candidates with 5 distinctions | 11 | 14 | 19 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 16 |
Note: From 2014 onwards, Mathematics Paper III was scrapped and the contents incorporated into the other two papers which meant that candidates wrote 7 subjects as opposed to 8 in the past.
A “Full House” of distinctions is thus 7, unless the candidate does Advanced Programme Mathematics in which case they can obtain 8 distinctions. In a few rare cases, candidates offer an extra subject, taken privately but this is not the norm.
8 Distinctions
Keyashin Chinsamy
Kevin Hendriks
Akshay Maharaj
7 Distinctions
Shaun Farrell
Frederick Grobler
Jason Kearney
Nishkar Naraindath
Shaun Traviss
6 Distinctions
Stelios Ayiotis
Calvin Boonzaier
Oliver Eggers
Matthew Janse van Rensburg
Francois Le Roux
Nicholas Mosimane
Hans Swartz
Xander van Eeden
Sven van Zyl
Le Anh Vu
5 Distinctions
Christian Bezuidenhout
Jacob Cloete
Fabrizio de Canha
Zander Dreyer
Mohamed El-Shahir
Matthew Glover
Christian Groenewald
Cameron Joseph
Tshepang Kekana
Young Jin Kim
Ivan Louw
Niel Lubbe
Michael Manley
Razeen Moosa
Ariel Taverner
Glen Thatcher
A more comprehensive analysis will follow once Subject Heads have scrutinised the results.
We are very proud of our boys and wish them well for the future.
FROM THE HEADMASTER
18 January 2017
Dear Parents/Guardians
MATRIC RESULTS
A lot has been said about the recently released 2016 Matric results. Parents, community members, schools, and the media, have all put forward arguments as to the relative and comparative success of various schools. Schools are claiming the status as the top academic schools in their particular region or province, but very little is said about the criteria they use to make these statements.
Comparisons are difficult, especially considering the inequality of schools across the country. Different criteria have been used to “judge” the relative success of schools as educational institutions.
The first of these is pass rates.
A 100% pass rate (which PBHS achieved) is a reasonable expectation of any well-resourced school. However, a top academic school may have one or two students who don’t pass, particularly if they are large schools. This should not detract from the excellence achieved by the remainder of the students.
A more meaningful statistic is the Bachelor rate achieved, i.e. the percentage of matriculants who qualify for application to tertiary education.
More than 95% of our class of 298 boys achieved this, the best result Boys High has ever had. The provincial Bachelor rate was 36% and the national rate 26%. There were only two schools of comparable size in Gauteng with higher Bachelor rates; both the girls schools close to us obtained 96% and 97% respectively. Our Bachelor rate has, over the past six years, been between 88% and 91%, so this was indeed a pleasing improvement.
But questions should still be asked as to the quality of those certificates. Raw numbers of distinctions is used by schools, which is meaningless since larger schools will achieve more distinctions than smaller schools.
An alternative is the average number of distinctions achieved per student. This has some merit but the subjects in which these are achieved is important. Numbers of distinctions per student can be inflated by large numbers of students achieving these in subjects such as Mathematical Literacy (where many students may have been persuaded to change to from pure Mathematics) Life Orientation, and in subjects that PBHS does not even offer.
If comparisons must be made it would be interesting to analyse the percentage of students per school who take pure Mathematics (as opposed to Mathematical Literacy) and Physical Science, and what percentage excel in these key subjects? Also what percentage of students is involved in Advanced Programme Mathematics (if the school offers it) and how do those students perform? Combine this information with the Bachelor rate and you may have significant statistical information to make a meaningful comparison. The following table gives some data on these two subjects.
| Candidates | Taking Maths | Taking Science | Pass Maths | Pass Science | |
| National | 674 652 | 265 810 (39%) | 192 618 (29%) | 135 958 (51%) 20% of total |
119 427 (62%) 18% of total |
| PBHS | 298 | 250 (84%) | 239 (81%) | 247 (99%) 83% of total |
233 (97%) 78% of total |
So, when schools lay claim to being the best in terms of academic performance, ask a few simple questions around Bachelor rates, and numbers of students taking those subjects traditionally considered to be academically tough such as pure Mathematics and Physical Sciences. It is also wise to consider the size of the cohort writing final exams as a 95% Bachelor rate from a class of 298 is, to me, more impressive that a similar percentage for a class of 100 students.
We are justifiably proud of our 2016 matric results but matric results are just that, matric results. Matric should not be viewed as the end of an academic programme but rather as an entry to further study. As an unashamedly academic school, of far more interest to us is how our boys do in their chosen field of study after school.
How well do they do at university? Do they finish their degrees in the requisite time and how many proceed to post graduate qualifications? We are in the process of setting up a system so that we can more effectively track the success of our boys once they have left the school. Then, perhaps, we can better judge our own effectiveness as an educational institution preparing boys for their futures.
The debate about matric exams, matric results, and their efficacy as predictors of success, and the eternal debate as to which schools did well, will continue forever. I hope I have been able to give you some food for thought as you consider this issue.
Yours sincerely
A D REELER
HEADMASTER