EC progress in matric passes

There is much that is encouraging about this year’s matric results. Although the Eastern Cape remains one of the poorest performers on the national stage, our province has edged past the 70% success mark and has its sights set on doing still better this year.

It is pleasing that those who passed include well over half the learners who were “progressed” to Grade 12.

And the quality of the province’s matriculants is on the up with many achieving bachelors passes and subject distinctions.

In a country where socio-economic factors largely spell destiny it is particularly heartening that more than half the Grade 12s who qualify to go to university come from non-fee schools.

But it is not the time to break out the champagne.

Critics have rightly pointed to the high number of youngsters who did not make it to those final examinations.

In 2016 more than 148,000 learners were registered in Grade 10 in the province but only 65,733 actually wrote their final exams.

Nationally about 500,000 children are estimated to have not made it through from Grade 1 to the 2018 matric exams.

The provinces that have reflected the largest improvements in their pass rates, including the Eastern Cape, are also the provinces with the biggest such decrease in pupils who wrote the matric exams.

There are concerns that the disappearance of so many learners points to widespread “culling” – a practice where teachers and principals discourage weaker students from going on to Grade 12 for fear that they will bring down the school’s pass rate.

Equal Education goes so far as to argue that when one looks at the throughput rate over the past three years it “suggests that the pass rate has actually been declining and ranges between 41% and 37%”.

In the absence of meaningful data on what has happened to these thousands of youngsters one can but guess where they have gone. Some of those missing from the class of 2018 repeated grades along the way and remain in the system; some may have opted to go to FET colleges and some moved to other provinces. However it is almost certain that many dropped out along the way. They face a bleak future. A Stats SA report indicates that people who have never obtained a matric certificate form the largest proportion of SA’s unemployed – 56%.

Retaining learners in school and ensuring they leave school with a meaningful qualification remains a key challenge in our province and country.

Ensuring learners leave school with a meaningful qualification remains a key challenge in our province and country