The emphasis should be on quality education rather than the grandeur of a high matric pass rate, said Wouter Wessels, FF Plus-MPL in the Free State Legislature, during a debate on the provincial department of education’s medium term budget in the Legislature.
He said that even though the Free State’s matric pass rate was the highest in the country at 88.2%, only 55% of grade ones who started school in 2005 reached matric in 2016; 17.7% of the learners who dropped out of school before matric was due to poor academic performance. Therefore the department should seriously consider the quality of education presented to learners in South Africa. If the quality of education improves, the matric pass rate will automatically be higher.
Wessels quoted the World Economic Forum’s 2016 report on Global Information Technology, which states that South Africa’s education system is ranked 137th out of 139 countries, with our Mathematics and Science education ranked 75th out of 76 countries, despite the fact that SA is one of the highest spenders per capita on education in the world.
Wessels welcomed the Second Chance finishing initiative for learners who could not pass matric the first time. According to the SA Qualifications Authority 125 000 black students and 50 000 white students graduated from tertiary institutions in 2016 and the rate at which tertiary qualifications are obtained increased by 3.3% since 2015.
Yet unemployment in South Africa flourishes at a rate of 26.6%. In light of these rampant unemployment rates and the fact that the job market is flooded with more and more graduates each year, the department of education should empower learners by skills development, quality education and a strong focus on entrepreneurship. This will enable learners to take part in the economy from a very early stage and help them support themselves, their families, create jobs and escape other dire socio-economic factors that are synonym with unemployment, poor education and poverty.
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