Black matrics score the worst, according to data
South African policy makers must also be careful that other African economies do not become preferred destinations to high-tech and high-skilled investment
MBOMBELA – The South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) says it has found “deep-seated racial and social inequalities in the country’s matric results”.
It issued a statement about it earlier today, saying that, according to data obtained from the Department of Basic Education, only 35 per cent of matric candidates who wrote mathematics in 2014 achieved a grade of 40 per cent or above.
When the data was broken down by race group, it became apparent that 83 per cent of white candidates obtained a grade of 40 per cent and above as opposed to 69.7 per cent of Indian candidates, 46.3% of coloured candidates and just 28.5 per cent of African candidates.
According to the CEO of the IRR, Dr Frans Cronjé, “the data reveals that 20 years into our democracy, not nearly enough has been done to deliver high-quality education to black people”.
The IRR report also broke down levels of educational achievement by living standards quintile. The data showed strong correlations between living standards and educational outcomes. For example, in the poorest quantile, only 5.9 per cent of candidates passed mathematics in matric with a grade of 60 per cent of higher. In the wealthiest quantile, the figure was 23.3 per cent.
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Cronjé said: “The quality of mathematics education generally is very poor in South Africa, despite the fact that the economy is transitioning away from less-skilled primary and secondary industries towards the more highly skilled tertiary sector.
“This will continue to depress economic growth levels and job creation while hobbling any expansion of the middle class. South African policy makers must also be careful that other African economies do not become preferred destinations to high-tech and high-skilled investment.”
He added that the IRR has made several proposals on how to improve the quality of schooling in South Africa – especially through voucher systems and contract schooling – but to date, policy makers seem intent to persist with a model of state-led schooling that is failing.
