IN TWO days' time another group of a generation South Africans will start their school careers. Many of them will be those who never lived a day under apartheid and should, thankfully, have no link with the past that has continued to haunt this beautiful country.

But experience will have taught many that it needs more than throwing off the political shackles of apartheid to make South Africa work. Little more than two weeks ago we read the score sheet of the class of 2011 when the matric results were released.

It made for some sorry reading for those given to digging a little deeper than the headlines when Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga proclaimed to widespread acclaim that the matric pass rate had continued on an upward trajectory with a 70.2%.

It was, as was the case a year earlier, an improvement on the state of our basic education over the past five years or so. Dismal matric results were the order of the day then.

But many are wont to point the nation to what they deem the true picture painted by the 70.2% success rate.

The real pass rate, they maintain, is in the region of 38%.

That argument is backed by numbers. Well over 900,000 pupils started schooling 12 years earlier, but only 496,090 sat for the final matric exams last year.

To paint an even more depressing picture, only 24,3% of these obtained a pass good enough for university admission.

What the numbers don't state quite as clearly is that more than half of the children that started school in 2000 didn't make it past Grade 12. Where are they?

This is a question many have asked and few, least of all the Department of Education, have ventured to answer satisfactorily.

Were the conditions in our schools not good enough to prepare them for life beyond? Is the system simply broken beyond remedying itself?

On Wednesday, when another one million-odd boys and girls set foot for the first time in a classroom, what are the odds they face. How many of them will make their way out the grade 12 door successfully?

The target for a people that has achieved so much in forging nationhood and a culture of human rights is to secure the right to proper education of every child that goes to a South African school and to make a success of what life offers them.

The achievement of that goal rests not only with schools and teachers but all of us. It behoves us, whatever role we play in these children's lives, to afford them every opportunity to make a success not only of scholarly pursuits but life in general.

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Thu Jun 20 12:18:03 SAST 2013 ::

Jan 16, 2012

MommaC

500 000 brand new unskilled labourers in a country with a glut of unskilled labour.
Then we wonder at our unemployment figures.
Heartbreaking!
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Jan 16, 2012

FactorAnalyst

The challenge is clear about school dropout, what are solutions? I have mastered a course in the US that has proven to help to sustain students in the school system until their last grade, however, I find no employment. I, with many other unemployed graduates, am willing to contribute to develop our education and economy but hey, employment is reserved to politically-well-aligned people. With an NGO, we get no sponsors, with business contracts are also reserved for the elite in politics.
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Jan 16, 2012

Shredder

""More than half of the children that started school in 2000 didn't make it past Grade 12. Where are hey?"

They are busy having s3x and shooting videos. Some are at the taverns. Some of them are busy ka nyaope. Unfortunately our government told us not even to touch them, otherwise they would throw us in jail.
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Jan 16, 2012

Keafixa

they are quieing for goverment grant, weking in construction as, fixing radios, packing goods ko pick n pay n shoprite, cleaning our cars, at noord taxi ranks abusing our women, at street corners of hillbrow, car guards, queu marshalls the list is endless.
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Jan 16, 2012

cornelius

Angie Motrshega and her department are guilty of lying to the country about education in this country. They know this statistic, and they know the 70% pass rate is a fake because of the many learners that don't even make it to the exams. They also know that the standards are far to low. Prof Jonathan Jansen says that 4 distinctions should now be regarded as an average result, and I have heard from experienced educators that you should subtract 10% from the marks, to get a better idea of what the true mark should be, Many of these kids come to university and then can't even read or write properly. The value of a SA matric certificate is now at rock bottom.

It is a scandal over which not only the minister should resign, but in fact the whole government, since they are destroying the future of this country with their gross incompetence and lies.
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Jan 16, 2012

Newman

Thats a mysterious question that none can come with an answer, there is a system that, seems to work in other countries as to control students and I think if SAcan adopt it it wiww be if great use. everyone must be forced to go to school. and after grade 12 they all undergo a 1 year military service that will be compulsory. by that time they can apply to their respective careers with the help of education department joined with the military, this can give them lots of optins as some of them might even like it there and serve the country.
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Jan 16, 2012

Firefly

""More than half of the children that started school in 2000 didn't make it past Grade 12. Where are hey?"
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They are busy having s3x and shooting videos. Some are at the taverns. Some of them are busy ka nyaope. Unfortunately our government told us not even to touch them, otherwise they would throw us in jail.
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they are quieing for goverment grant, weking in construction as, fixing radios, packing goods ko pick n pay n shoprite, cleaning our cars, at noord taxi ranks abusing our women, at street corners of hillbrow, car guards, queu marshalls the list is endless.
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and lets not forget those who were killed by their parents!!
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Jan 16, 2012

candilious

@Firefly- On point
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Jan 16, 2012

Shredder

@Firefly - "and lets not forget those who were killed by their parents!!"

Eisan! The sad truth.
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Jan 16, 2012

Tabza325is

@Newman, we can't force people to go to school if it doesn't cator for thier skill or talent, our education system does not nature skill and talent, it's designed to condition or prepare kids for coporate and academic world, some kids are more physical than others meaning they are sports-man, some are more technical than others meaning they need machenical courses or electrical etc. high school does not cator for this, most kids get exposed at a late age to thier profession of passion or talent, by then some would have already dropped out. Also the other half end up in jail, if you look at our prisons they are packed with young black men why is that, I would say they are many factors that lead to the other half dropping out.
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