Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga put a brave face on the Class of 2016 matric results‚ but she woke up on Friday to a dose of harsh reality. Readers of respected weekly magazine The Economist were greeted by a headline that read: "SA has one of the world’s worst education systems: Why it is bottom of the class". "In a league table of education systems drawn up in 2015 by the OECD club of mainly rich countries‚ SA ranks 75th out of 76‚" the article reports. "In November the latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss)‚ a quadrennial test sat by 580‚000 pupils in 57 countries‚ had SA at or near the bottom of its various rankings‚ though its scores had improved since 2011. Its children are behind those in poorer parts of the continent. "A shocking 27% of pupils who have attended school for six years cannot read‚ compared with 4% in Tanzania and 19% in Zimbabwe. "After five years of school about half cannot work out that 24 divided by three is eight. Only...
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