Opinion

Scary trend in Matric results

December 29, 2006 Edition 1

While congratulations are due to all those young people who passed their matric, the declining pass rate is of grave concern and shows that the Education Department is failing the youth of this country and its future economic prospects.

This year's matric pass rate is a mere 66.6% - a decline of 1.7% from 2005 - which means that a third of those who wrote the matric exams failed the core test of their schooling.

In KwaZulu-Natal the situation is even worse, with a pass rate that has dropped from 70.5% in 2005 to 65.7% this year.

The scary fact is the education system is failing to supply South Africa's youth with the necessary tools to graduate from secondary to tertiary education or from schools into the market place.

What makes it worse is that this is the third year in a row that the results have declined, on top of which the number of learners who received exemptions and the number who passed matric maths and science on Higher Grade also dropped.

Minister of Education Naledi Pandor's explanation, that schools are inadequately resourced and funded is quite correct, but she cannot hide behind these factors without a comprehensive plan to turn the declining pass rates dramatically around.

What is abundantly clear is that there is something seriously amiss with education in this country and a cohesive plan needs to be devised urgently to put matters right

One interesting facet of the results is the fact that girls in KZN outperformed their male counterparts and received more university entrance exemptions. This could mean that the work place could receive a far greater number of women in the years to come, as girls swept the boards in business economics, economics and travel.

This also shows that girls, particularly in the rural areas, have greater access to the schooling system and are making good use of the opportunities provided despite the lack of resources so often found in rural schools.

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