The quality of education in South Africa has hardly improved despite Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, lauding the Matric 2017 achievement. While the pass rate of 75.1% may seem satisfactory, she has not sufficiently addressed the 'real' pass rate - how many Grade 10s from two years ago have passed matric - and the unacceptably high figure of children who have dropped out of school.
Last year, 41% of the learners who had enrolled in Grade 10 in 2015 did not enrol for matric. Nearly half of Grade 10 learners are dropping out of or getting stuck in the system - delaying their entry into post-school education and the job market. The Minister however does not see this as a crisis and has refused our requests for an investigation into this high dropout rate
...