VIJAY NAIDOO: Good Business Basics – 2022 pass rate will not solve the issue of unemployment
Ensuring that pupils achieve at least 60% and get into occupations in high demand and is important.
As I predicted late last year, the orgy of backslapping and self-congratulations by education MECs and the Minister of Basic Education over the ‘impressive’ 2022 matric pass rates continues unabated.
A great deal of ‘smoke and mirrors’ was employed to mask the true picture. For starters, many commentators have extrapolated the published 81% overall pass rate against the students who dropped out of the system over 12 years, which reduced the effective pass rate to 54%.
Over and above the quantitative measures, for me the qualitative matrics are the ones that really put a lie to the five odd percentage increase over the 2022 cohorts
pass rate (76%).
Firstly, looking at the bachelor’s passes, which enable university entrance, while these may have improved, the number of students who achieved bachelor passes
with maths marks which allowed them to enroll for courses in the science, business or engineering fields was dismal. Only 37,2% of the 2022 cohort sat for core maths, with only 22% of them achieving a 50% pass mark.
What this results in is a flood of applicants into the ‘generalist’ fields, (BAs), which then lead to an ever-increasing pool of graduates with ‘generalist’ qualifications, when our economy is crying out for specialists in technology, finance and science.
The issue of ‘gatekeeping’ where schools prevented students from choosing maths because they did not want to risk their pass rates was highlighted again, with Ashly Ah Goo, chair of the SA Mathematics Challenge commenting in the Sunday Times; ‘Schools generally try to protect their pass rates by ensuring that only learners that can do well in maths do it.’
Alarmingly, it was also pointed out in the same article by Emeritius Professor John Webb from the UCT Maths Department that the ‘difficulty level’ of senior certificate mathematics had been benchmarked against the old standard grade papers from 1994, which meant that many of those that achieved high pass marks (A/B symbols) ended up struggling with first year university level maths.
The stark reality is that an ordinary matric pass means very little in the way of making a matriculant employable in almost all formal work fields. This arises from the literal ‘dumbing down’ of the examination by bringing pass marks down to an average of 30% in most subjects. In an attempt to make tertiary education more accessible, all the education department has done is increase the burden on universities, and contribute to the pool of desperate unemployed and unemployable graduates.
Vijay Naidoo is the CEO of the Port Shepstone Business Forum. He writes in his personal capacity. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
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