EDUCATION
GAVIN KEETON: Matric pass measure fails to take dropouts into account
To move away from the bottom of world educational rankings, increased resources will be needed
SA’s obsession with the pass rate in the annual matric results has rightly been criticised. Because many pupils do not even get to the final year of school, the pass rate in the school-leaving examinations is not a meaningful measure of the state of our national or provincial education achievement. Nic Spaull notes that the number of pupils who wrote matric in 2017 is slightly less than half of those who were in Grade 10 in 2015. If the matric pass rate were compared with the size of this cohort, it would fall from 75% to 37%. Spaull’s research shows dropouts are not a big problem between grades 2 and 10. The dramatic fall in pupil numbers occurs after Grade 10, when discouraged pupils leave or, possibly, are pushed out to boost matric pass rates. The dropout rate is especially severe in provinces where the largest number of pupils live (KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo).In SA, the quality of the education one receives is a critical determinant of one’s chances of finding a job....
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