DA: 75.1% pass rate does not reflect true state of education

 

The Democratic Alliance has described the latest matric results as cause for concern‚ not celebration.

Nomsa Marchesi‚ DA Deputy Shadow Minister of Basic Education‚ said the 75.1% pass rate announced on Thursday night did not reflect the true state of education.

“The quality of education in South Africa has hardly improved despite Basic Education Minister‚ Angie Motshekga‚ lauding the Matric 2017 achievement‚” Marchesi said in a statement.

“While the pass rate of 75.1% may seem satisfactory‚ she has not sufficiently addressed the ‘real’ pass rate – how many Grade 10s from two years ago have passed matric – and the unacceptably high figure of children who have dropped out of school.”

Marchesi said 41% of pupils who had enrolled in Grade 10 in 2015 did not make it to matric last year‚ meaning they were “dropping out or getting stuck in the system”. As a result their entry into tertiary education and the job market was delayed.

“The Minister however does not see this as a crisis and has refused our requests for an investigation into this high dropout rate‚” Marchesi said.

“The 2017 national matric pass rate for candidates who wrote the exams was 75.1%‚ while the ‘real’ pass rate – the number of Grade 10s from 2015 who passed matric 2017 – was only 37.3%. This is cause for serious concern‚ rather than celebration.”

-TimesLIVE

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