Matric results’ beauty skin deep

The 2023 matric exam results are a great marketing tool for the ANC as it heads towards the elections later this year. It will no doubt double down hard on what it sees as its achievements in education since 1994. And, no doubt, the number of children in schools and students in universities has increased in a phenomenal way in the last 30 years. Having an educated populace is essential if a country is to be lifted out of poverty.

Yet, there are worrying signs that the beauty of the government matric results may be just skin deep. The DA has calculated that, in all provinces, pupils fell out of the system before matric. Overall, there were 1 036 786 pupils enrolled in Grade 10 in 2021 – and 345 626 of them had dropped out before the National Senior Certificate.

Comparing the final pass figure of 572 947 with the total in Grade 10 in 2021, therefore, means only 55.3% of high school pupils passed matric. This presents a different picture to the 80%-plus figures the government is crowing about.

In addition, the performance of the state schools doesn’t hold up well when compared to independent schools, which write the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) exams. Only 41% of pupils in public schools received university entrance passes, compared with 89% who sat the IEB exams.

The focus of the government’s education strategy is on pushing ever-increasing matric pass rates and holding out the promise of university degrees, although jobs for graduates are few and far between.

A more sensible strategy would be to improve vocational training to provide people with skills for the real world. This would provide an education and career path for those less academically inclined children who drop out of the system.

This would give more hope than the misleading achievement percentages.