The matric results we never saw depict an education system in crisis

2 April 2015

There is little reason for celebration when one delves deeper into the results of the 2014 National Senior Certificate (matric) exams. A reply to a DA parliamentary question has revealed that more than half of the 75.8% of learners who passed were effectively grade-appropriately innumerate and fewer learners are taking the subjects that are required to address this country's critical skills shortage.

I will submit further parliamentary questions to probe:

what is being done to curb the trend away from subjects crucial to the development of critical skills;

the details of teacher vacancy levels and teacher qualifications at schools that performed particularly poorly in critical subjects;

the details of school-based turnaround strategies; and

the methodology the Minister of Basic Education is using to track turnaround progress, particularly with respect to numeracy and literacy, in each province.

A massive 10 4924 learners failed Mathematics and 49 556 failed Mathematical Literacy. This means that 28% of all learners writing matric last year failed any form of numeracy assessment. What is more startling is that 70% of all learners failed to achieve above 50% for any form of numeracy.

In the case of Mathematics, 4 430 of the learners enrolled to write, did not do so. For Mathematical Literacy, the situation was worse, with 6 261 enrolled learners not writing. The obvious assumption is that these children were likely to fail, and were therefore precluded from writing so that they would not negatively influence their school's pass rate.

The ratio of Mathematics to Mathematical Literacy is decreasing, contrary to the demands of the labour market. The percentages of learners taking each subject are trending as follows:

The trend shows fewer learners are taking the subjects that are required to address the shortage of critical skills in our country. For example, the following numbers of learners wrote critical subjects:

The quality of matric passes is largely poor, with extraordinary numbers of learners achieving very low marks. The following subjects exhibit the most troubling results:

The above statistics show that our education system and its ability to prepare our children to contribute meaningfully to our economy is severely compromised. 

Drastic and urgent action is needed by Minister Motshekga for the sake of our children, their future prospects and the future of our country. 

Statement issued by Annette Lovemore MP, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, April 2 2015

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