The Department of Education touts latest matric ‘pass’ rate of 88.2% as a victory and a continuation of progress. The Mzansi Report claims that the results are a statistical fraud and a “managed decline of our children’s future.” I agree.
The South African (SA) public education system churns out certificates with no concern about whether the person will be able to function in the real-world modern economy, or about the wasted opportunity costs for limited resources. At no point is a child really required to master anything. Indeed, at grade 3 80% cannot read for meaning in any language, and that is an absolute prerequisite for any future skill acquisition. Yet schools send almost all students forward, under the pretence of successfully installed competence. From then on it becomes impossible to fix education. Naturally, a massive drop-out rate follows. Only 50-60% even reach matric implying that the 88.2% pass rate is for the select rather than the entire population.
But the matric pass rate is an illusion based on absurdly low standards. With sensible standards the pass rate, given current skills, would be below 40%. International standardized tests of literacy, mathematics and science skills place South Africa behind our poorer neighbours Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Eighty percent of matriculants do not even have the skills to do entry level admin.
The Department of Education brags about an increase in bachelor’s passes but these labels are fake. The universities do not trust the results. The know the certificate, and even distinctions, are no guide to whether graduates can read, write a coherent paragraph or solve a basic equation. They require a separate national benchmark test which is beyond most ‘bachelor passes. Many admitted students drop out in 6 months because they cannot cope and may have to pay back a student loan. This is in spite of declining university standards. For example, a job applicant with a university degree in statistics did not understand the most basic concept (the average) in statistics.
If the official pass rate were a genuine reflection of the state of South African education employability should be at an all-time high too. People really do need to have the necessary skills to do the job because no enterprise can stay afloat for long if those employees cannot conduct the purpose of that enterprise’s existence. The record 60% youth unemployment rate contradicts the education claim.
Why is SA public education like this? Firstly, it is not the fault of the students. The fact that our poorer neighbours, with the same genetic potential, achieve higher objective skill levels suggests our students are capable of more and the state could do better. Black people attending decent schools outside of the public system also achieve better outcomes. This too is evidence that the native potential of our students is not a limiting factor. The system is at fault.
There are multiple problems where the educational wheel hits the road. The teachers are badly qualified themselves. Frequent practice is not preparing lessons, giving or marking homework, or bothering to turn up to teach. The teacher’s union makes managing this difficult. Government undersupplies schools with materials and infrastructure, in spite of SA’s fairly high education budget.
Then there is the lack of objective assessment. If the department does not know grades 0-2 are achieving nothing, they cannot take steps to fix the problem. Possibly they do not know how to fix it. If so, they should admit it and get help. Teachers and principals usually do know the students have not mastered the skills they need to profit from going forward but knowing that funding depends on results it is easier to game the system and fudge the results. So, schools push students forward, leaving unprepared for the rest of their educational lives.
The assessments, such as they are, set absurdly low standards. In high school, thousands fail the maths needed for the fields that are the biggest drivers of economic growth. The system then nudges them to the much easier maths literacy and then adjusts those marks upward when too many students fail to reach the ridiculously low 30% standard. Thirty percent means you do not understand the vast majority of even the dumbed down curriculum and are manifestly not ready to apply it. No one would risk relying on a professional with so little mastery of their field.
Umalusi (the accreditation authority for private education) also adjusts scores to smooth out erratic year to year changes but doing so every year for 20 years ends up accumulating adjustments in a single direction thus hiding a declining standard. Counting the super easy life orientation in the overall assessment inflates the overall grade.
Why is the government allowing this?
I do not buy the conspiracy theory that business wants it because the unskilled are cheap labour. For business cost is secondary to usefulness. Business wants more competent people out there.
Another conspiracy theory is that a smart and knowledgeable population is hard to govern or for the corrupt to mislead. That is a motive for neglecting education but a thriving economy is good for those who govern, so a trade-off seems likely.
The political survival instinct is at play. High pass rates signal progress. Politicians use these numbers in election campaigns and to justify budgets. Whatever the truth, the appearance needs to look good. So, politicians trade the long-term economic progress of the country, and your child’s future, for that brief glow. It is a betrayal. The youth are being set up for failure, and government calls it a success.
It occurs to me that government does not believe skills play any role in the economy, as though the economy just happens to exist (as a natural or magical phenomenon.) For example, the current approach to transformation just focuses on ownership and job occupation and downplays skills.
Government is wrong. Gains in welfare everywhere, and for everything, are entirely dependent on gains in knowledge of how to do things. Long-term black advancement will happen to the degree that they gain skills needed in a modern economy.
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The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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