DA disputes matric pass rate

The DA has refuted the 2022 matric results, saying they are inaccurate and the “real” matric pass rate is only 54.6%.

The National Senior Certificate results were announced by basic education minister Angie Motshekga on Thursday. She hailed an overall pass rate of 80.1%, an increase of 3.7 percentage points from the previous year.

DA MP Baxolile Nodada said hiding behind misleading pass rates would only cause more harm.

“We calculate the real matric pass rate by bringing into account the number of pupils who dropped out and never made it to matric,” Nodada said.

“Some pupils opt out of schooling at the end of grade 9 to pursue their education through technical and vocational education and training facilities, but a large number stop their education entirely. We account for the grade 10 cohort who ought to complete matric.”

He said the 45.4% fail rate and high dropout rate were particularly concerning because many of those pupils contribute to the country’s youth unemployment rate.

“A little over 3.5-million youth are not in education, employment or any form of skills training. Unless the basic education department addresses the twin issues of the high dropout rate and the ineffective curriculum offering that fails to fully develop knowledge and skills to access economic opportunities, most matriculants’ futures will be very limited,” Nodada said.

The DA alleged the department of basic education has not established a system of tracking pupils who leave the public schooling system, resulting in a high likelihood of pupils joining the unemployment lines once they leave school, whether by dropping out or after graduation.

The EFF shared these sentiments, saying there are “thousands of young people who have fallen through the cracks due to dire learning conditions and have resorted to a life of alcohol, drug abuse and crime”.

“In 2011, when this group of pupils began their grade 1 studies, more than 1.2-million children registered for grade 1. However, the number of pupils who registered for their 2022 matric examinations on a full-time basis was 752,003, meaning more than 500,000 young people have been lost in the system,” the EFF said.

Noting the “long overdue release” of matric results, the EFF said the class of 2022’s achievement was commendable, considering  it “came in the face of poor service delivery, perennial infrastructure problems and crippling electricity blackouts”.

The EFF criticised the education department for being “boastful about the resilience, courage and perseverance of a youth that has largely been deprived of an environment conducive to teaching and learning”. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa congratulated the matric class of 2022 for “outstanding individual and collective performances” despite challenges brought about by two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, load-shedding and a period of unrest.

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