TWO out of three Grade 10 pupils never complete high school.
Research by the South African Institute for Race Relations, to be released next week, claims that fewer than half of the pupils who enrolled for Grade 10 in 2008 sat for the 2010 matric exams.
"Of the same 2008 cohort, only 34% actually went on to pass matric in 2010, and only a third of those passes were good enough to gain admission to university to study for a bachelor's degree," the report said.
In 2008, 533561 pupils wrote matric and only 334239 passed.
"Those who have not completed secondary education together with those whose highest quali-fication is matric account for 81% of all unemployed. Only 6% of the unemployed are people who have completed a tertiary education," researcher Jonathan Snyman said.
A study of post-school youth conducted by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation and the Further Education and Training Institute in a 2009 study found that in 2007 there were 2.8million people between the ages 18 and 24 who were not employed, not in some form of education or training, and not severely disabled.
Of these, those with a secondary education under Grade 10 constituted 508597 of the unemployed, while those with a Grade 10 education but no matric accounted for 990794.
Those who passed matric without an exemption account for 598657 of the unemployed.
About 25% of South Africans are unemployed.
"Most pupils who drop out before completing high school do so as a result of a lack of funds," Snyman said.
"Other common reasons that pupils leave school are to look for work or because of family commitments. There is also a view that being at school is not relevant."