More than half our learners "culled" before matric exams are written

28 September 2014

The DA in the Western Cape, once again, has, by far, the highest percentage of its learners who have made it all the way through twelve years of schooling, and who are now readying themselves to write the final examinations of their school career, as shown in a recent reply to a DA parliamentary question.

Principals and provincial education departments are measured on their results achieved in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations (colloquially referred to as matric exams). The preoccupation with the matric pass rate - simply the number of matric passes achieved, relative to the number of learners writing the exams - has had a highly negative consequence, referred to, simply, as "culling". 

Culling is carried out indirectly and directly. Both have devastating effects on the future prospects of the affected learners. Indirect culling takes place through a passive approach to learners dropping out of school, without taking active steps to identify vulnerable learners and intervene to do whatever is possible to keep these learners in school and progressing towards their matric certificates. Direct culling takes place when learners who are unlikely to pass matric are not registered to write the exam. They would have the option, then, of repeating Grade 12 the following year. How many would?

53% of the learners who leave school without a matric certificate are doomed to join the ranks of the unemployed. Most will be from poverty-stricken communities and families, and will inevitably be destined to depend on the state for their existence.

Getting a matric certificate dramatically improves employment chances. The figures are still too high, but at 33% unemployment, are substantially lower than those for learners without a matric.

Only 8% of learners who go on to get degrees will, at some stage, be unemployed.

The effort that goes into ensuring that as many learners as possible get through matric, and, importantly, get through matric well, will pay off handsomely in the long run, and will outstrip any effort that ever went into getting a high matric pass rate by culling.

It is impossible to quantify, separately, the numbers attributable to indirect and direct culling. But we can determine the combined figures. They are as follows, for public schools:

It is immediately apparent that the Western Cape has actively worked to prevent culling, and that, for a province like North West, matric pass rates are more important than the future prospects of learners, and, in effect, the value of education to the growth of the economy.

The rate of retention of learners has dropped dramatically in most provinces. This is likely a direct result of the new application of the fail-once-per-phase policy to Grades 10 to 12. In terms of this policy, a learner who failed Grade 10 cannot be held back again in Grade 11, and progression to Grade 12 is mandatory. The only way to prevent these learners from writing the matric exam is to offer no resistance to them dropping out, or to preclude them from registering to write.

For most South Africans, the minimum qualification for a quality life is a matric certificate. But more than half of our learners who were in Grade 10 two years ago have little chance of achieving this.

Minister Motshekga and most of the provincial education MECs have much to learn about education priorities. They will learn, from the Western Cape, that the child, and not the officials, is education's core business.

Statement issued by Annette Lovemore MP, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, September 28 2014

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