In a never-ending effort of the ruling party to boycott education in South Africa so to keep potential voters uneducated and unaware of their corrupt and incompetent leadership the recent release of the 2018 matric results is yet just another example how they try to pull the wool over the eyes of the public.
Minister for Basic Education since 2009 and past president of the ANC Women’s League, Angie Motshekga, had the audacity to step in front of the press to announce a national pass rate of 78.2% in the 2018 National Senior Certificate Examinations, an alleged increase of 3.1% compared to 2017 and appositive trend over the recent years.
But the honourable Minister forgot to mention two major facts that show those figures in a different light:
h2. Reduced Passing Marks
South Africa has in the recent pass reduced various passing marks in order to reach higher pass rates. For example, in December 2016 (only two years ago), the pass mark for mathematics was reduced from 40% to 20% (sic!) in order for pupils not to be held back in their educational advancement due to a lack of this essential skill. Over and above this ridiculously low pass mark, in most public High Schools Mathematics is optional and if a pupil scores less than 30% in Mathematics in Grade 9, he or she is not even allowed to choose Math as a subject in the following year. No, this is not a joke, this is the tool-set how the Government masks failure and prevents further embarrassment!
In February 2018, less than a year ago, this very Minister, who now attempts to blindside the public, attempted to lower the pass mark of 50% for senior learners to pass Grades 7, 8 or 9, to 40% and to let them pass if they achieved 30% in three subjects!!! No words!
h2. Silence on Drop-Outs
Further to the above, the figures released do not take into account the number of pupils, who drop out of school and therefore do not finish matric. The pass rate would have to be adjusted by also determining how many pupils were enrolled in 2016 in Grade 10 and how many of those now matriculated.
Here of the just under 1.1 million pupils in Grade 10 in 2016, only 512 000 wrote matric in 2018, a quote of 48.1%, which – applied to the announced pass rate, would lead to an effective pass rate of only 37.6% of those who were attending Grade 10 two years ago.
*In summary:* The pass rate announced is not a true reflection of the reality. This reality is rather bleak, with even taking lower pass marks into consideration just over a third of our hopeful youth is given the chance to matriculate in pursuance of a fair and prosperous educational and professional future!