‘Matric results not reflective of struggles of education system’

Sir
The Progressive Students Movement unequivocally rejects the matric results that were announced by the so-called Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, as they are not a true representation of the struggles of all matriculants. While many have managed to pull through and overcome the challenges presented by this non-inclusive education system, some were not fully equipped to overcome these challenges.
Furthermore, the majority of our learners had no qualified teachers but were taught by FET materials as teacher’s who have no understanding nor knowledge of what they are teaching.
Only 22% qualify for higher education!
This questions the credibility of the educational system of the country at large and how serious the education is taken.”Only 68 passed with 30%, don’t worry/forget about it” – what kind of a mature minister would utter such a thing shows lack of care from Angie and PSM highly condemns this utterance and believe Angie should apologize to those learners.
PSM also rejects the publication of the results in both media platforms, newspaper, cellphone apps and all other media sites as they usually have errors that may affect our learners.
The root of matric under-performance
If Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga sincerely wanted to share an honest diagnosis of the schooling system with the public, she would have used her elaborate stage to report comprehensively on literacy and numeracy outcomes for foundation phase learners (Grade R to Grade 3). Most learners who suffer an inadequate foundation phase education are the children of the poor and working class.
Socio-economic gaps in cognitive outcomes take root, widen and become more unyielding even before children enter school [4].
The consequence of poor quality early childhood development, and poor quality foundation phase education, is that the opportunity to reduce learning gaps and develop the potential of children, irrespective of their home background, is lost. Children acquire learning deficits in the early grades. This is the root of under-performance in the later, high school grades.
Schools which historically served black learners have remained dysfunctional and unable to teach learners how to read, write and calculate at the appropriate level. By Grade 3, children in the poorest 60% of schools are already three years worth of learning behind learners of more affluent circumstances [5].
By the time these children reach Grade 9, they are five years worth of learning behind.
Learners who cannot read fluently by the end of Grade 4 cannot engage with the rest of the curriculum in meaningful ways. This is primarily because in grades 1 to 3 the curriculum focuses on learning to read, whereas from Grade 4 there is a shift to reading to learn.
For most learners, passing matric well and potentially obtaining a university degree is already largely unattainable by the time those learners reach the end of Grade 3 [6].
The necessary level of support from education department district offices is not being provided to the foundation phase grades [7]. Primary schools are less likely to be visited by district managers, circuit managers, and subject advisors, curriculum advisors than high schools.
In addition to the primary education crisis, various systemic challenges in South Africa’s education system continue to impact on matric results.
The 2015 matric results revealed distinct inequality in the performance of the provinces. More urbanised provinces, like Gauteng (GP) and the Western Cape (WC), performed significantly better (84.2% and 84.7% respectively) than rural provinces such as EC (57%), KZN (61%) and Limpopo (LP) (66%).
Rural provinces such as EC, KZN and LP have the most under-resourced and poorest schools, and consistently record pass rates well below the national average. As our new report shows, rural schools bear the brunt of the infrastructure crisis.
In rural provinces such as EC, KZN, and LP, schools have fewer teachers per learner than their urban counterparts and learners often have to walk cruel distances to get to school.
All of these factors impact on teaching and learning.
The Basic Education Department has systematically failed to address learner retention.
The pass rate bandied about by Minister Motshekga at her January press conference captures only the percentage of learners who have written the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam, but fails to account for learners who never make it to matric, or for the differences in quality of performance among those who pass the matric exams.
A look at the matric cohort that began in Grade 2 together shows the variation in the number of enrolled students from Grade 2 to Grade 10 to matric. PSM has consistently drawn attention to the dropout rate.
Looking at the 2015 and 2014 pass rate in relation to their cohort pass rates gives a more complete picture of the number of learners who have passed matric, since it considers those who were, for a myriad of reasons, not afforded the opportunity to write their final exams.
To fix what is wrong in matric, start at the very beginning: early childhood development.
There is widespread agreement that investment in early childhood development (ECD) can help close the gap between children from affluent and impoverished households [13].
Given that many South African children enter formal schooling with their development potential significantly compromised, investment in ECD is arguably the most cost-efficient
Kgothatso J Ramautswa