“Matric pass rate is misleading”

News South Africa

Tebogo Msimanga |

The Democratic Alliance (DA) congratulates all matrics who passed the 2021’s National Senior Certificate (NSC) matric exams. This is the first matric cohort that experienced their full grade 11 and 12 years under the national lockdown conditions, which included school closures, rotational timetables, and constant changes to their schooling environments.

DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education Baxolile Nodada said despite the matric pass rate announced by Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, is an inflated 76.4% that does not reflect the reality. “The Department does not account for the number of learners who dropped out between grade 10 and matric, and the real pass rate might be much lower. The DA will study the detailed results and reveal the actual pass rate in due course.”

Nodada said they know that 897 163 learners wrote the examination, but the grade 10 enrolment in 2019 was 1 045 424. “This means that at least 148 261 learners dropped out of the system and did not complete matric. The actual figure is much higher if we consider the students who wrote the examination but failed.”

Nodada added that during the announcement, Motshekga painted an unrealistic picture of what is happening on the ground. “Covid regulations for schools have only made matters worse, and it is clear by the results that the Minister should scrap the rotational timetable with immediate effect. “The Minister must stop whitewashing the matric results in an attempt to mask the systematic failures of her department and rather implement innovative school retention strategies, do away with the rotational timetables and track learners who drop out”.Stressed Nodada

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *