Making the grade

● Matric results are out this week for more than 600 000 pupils, and we can expect the usual political bunfight to ensue.

A year ago, Basic Education Minister

Angie Motshekga announced a national pass rate of 72.5% — but the DA pointed out that, of the 1.1 million pupils who started Grade 10 in 2014, only 610 000 wrote matric in 2016, making the true pass rate only 40.2%.

There’s one depressing statistic no one is arguing about: using the broadest definition of unemployment, 67% of South Africans aged 25 or under are out of work.