Now matrics face toughest job

First the joy, then the grim spectre of unemployment

T’S A bleak future for those who have just finished matric and it’s unlikely to get better for years. While the matric pass rate improved slightly by 2.4 percentage points from 67.8 percent a year ago to 70.2 percent for the class of 2011, the huge dropout rate continues, and results in crucial subjects like maths and science do not show the hoped-for improvements.

“At least 923 463 learners began Grade 1 in 2000 but only 496 090 wrote matric in 2011. Therefore, nearly half dropped out of school along the way,” said Doron Isaacs of Equal Education.

“Thus, the pass rate of 70.2 percent, when measured against all those who began school in 2000 reveals a true pass rate of approximately 38 percent.

“This is an improvement on 2010 but still a sobering statistic.”

Isaacs said the total number of matric candidates dropped from 537 543 in 2010 to 496 090 in 2011.

“This is a drop of 41 453 students or 8 percent.”

Isaacs said this overshadowed the 2.4 percentage point increase in the yearon-year results.

This is a cause for concern, said economist for The Efficient Group, Merina Willemse.

“This is an unfortunate, but realistic picture. What government needs to do is to start monitoring progress and numbers of school dropouts from primary school.

“The levels of education in lower grades have to be improved instead of concentrating just on matric results,” she said.

Those who did pass also face the grim spectre of crippling unemployment.

Getting jobs for learners who have just got their matric results is also going to be problematic, says Willemse.

David Shapiro, an economist for Sasfin, agreed. Government should be looking at the bigger picture.

“We hear about all the distinctions achieved at the end of a school year.

“It sounds good and everyone celebrates for a day. But, in reality, when these learners go out into the world to try to find jobs, they are useless because they have a piece of paper which is of no use to anyone

Iand no skills,” he said.

The education system in the country is misdirected. There should be more focus on vocational training, so that when pupils leave school, they are trained to do something for which there is a need, he said.

It was found, he said, in the crisis in world economies, that the problem lay not with monetary and economic trends, but with not having the right people with the right education to do the job.

Professor Ruksana Osman, head of Wits University’s School of Education, also raised the problem of the dropout rate.

“It’s terribly disappointing that less students are finishing to matric level,” said Osman.

Pupils probably drop out more because of socio-economic reasons than because they are deliberately held back by teachers wanting to improve pass rates, said Osman. “This is not a matric problem – it’s a systemic problem,” said Osman, emphasising the need for improvement in the lower grades.

Professor Francis Faller, the Wits School of Education’s deputy head, said the grade 3 and 6 assessments indicated a major problem right through the system.

“We’re not going to get it right by focusing on Grade 12,” said Faller.

Overall there were both positives and negatives in the results.

On the plus side, the pass rate is over 70 percent for the first time in a number of years and the exams were incident free, but on the negative side the results in crucial subjects like maths, science and languages are weak.

“Many people are managing to pass the senior certificate without achieving competence in key areas,” said Faller.

Osman called the maths and physical science results “very disappointing”.

Here a key problem was that teachers did not know the subjects well enough or how to teach them well enough.

“It’s quite a complex task,” said Osman, explaining that teaching requires “deep knowledge” of both the subject and how to teach it – “teachers in maths and science are weak in both” – and that the methods of teaching differed for different subjects.