Day 206: SA Matric Pass rate a shame for South Africans

 

The results came back for the 2013 Matric pass rate. Many articles and newspapers and even the president celebrates the fact that the pass rate is above 75%. This is apparent proof that the government has helped improved education in South Africa. What some may not realize is that over the past few years the government has decreased the pass mark all the way down to 30% - meaning that you only need 30% to pass an exam. So, by lowering the pass rate you increase the amount of people that passes Matric. Yet – even with only needing 30% to pass an exam 25% of pupils failed. About 1.2million grade 1 students were registered, but only about 550000 of those made it all the way to grade 12.

The question is what can you as a student do with a very low pass mark? Who would want to employ you? How are you going to get into universities? It is a big problem.

There are so many factors involved as to why students do badly in school. It could be the actual student not studying enough. It could be teachers that are ineffective or schools ill equipped to effectively teach children. The whole school curriculum across South Africa is not good enough.

The pass rate should be increased to 50%. This means if you do not know more than half of what you study – then you do not know it and should redo it. In the long run it will produce higher educated people. But the whole education system will have to be changed for this to work.

Another big problem is that even with very high matric marks, the chances that you will find a job is very slim.

Now there is a new proposal being suggested where no student can fail a grade more than once. So when you fail a grade a second time – you automatically pass to the next grade. Basically you can pass matric by simply failing twice. This is unbelievable, but this is something they want to implement which will mean we will have many people finishing their education – by knowing nothing.

The education problem is becoming worse – not improving at all. Everything that is being done by the government only makes things worse. It is time we find solutions to bring about higher educated students – and not settle for the bare minimum requirements.