Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube. (X)
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has refuted claims that it supports the 30% pass mark for matrics since it has joined the government of national unity (GNU) and has one of its members in the role of minister of basic education.
Instead, said Dalmaine Christians, the party’s spokesperson for the basic education portfolio committee, the DA wants the pass requirement for key subjects to be “incrementally” raised to 50%.
The minimum requirement pass mark of 30% has been in the spotlight since the announcement that the matric class of 2024 secured a pass rate of 87.3%, the highest in South Africa’s history.
According to the department of basic education, to obtain a national senior certificate (NSC), a student requires a minimum of three subjects with a score of at least 40% and two subjects with a score of at least 30%.
This has been widely criticised, including by Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane, who said 30% “undermines the intellect of South Africa’s youth and allows for the entrenchment of mediocrity and low expectations”.
Ramodungoane Tabane, chair of the department in psychology of education at Unisa, said: “The 30% pass rate should be increased because, out of 100%, we will really appreciate that learners at least know 50% that was assessed on that particular subject.”
ActionSA’s presidential spokesperson, Solly Moeng, shared the same sentiments, saying: “With a less than a 50% pass rate it means that [learners only have] half the knowledge that they are supposed to master to go forward, and it’s unacceptable.”
Christians said although the NSC requirement structure “ensures a baseline for achievement, the DA remains concerned that a 30% minimum in any subject does not fully equip learners for tertiary education or employment”.
She said Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube supported “curriculum reform to introduce practical skills alongside academic knowledge”.
The remarks come after Bosa accused Gwarube of “hypocrisy” after the minister failed to speak about the matter, which her party, the DA, had been vocal about prior to joining the GNU.
“Just six months in the national government, and the DA and its own minister of basic education has done a 180-degree U-turn and now promotes and defends what is essentially a lie,” Maimane said in a statement.
ActionSA said the DA has become “less outspoken” because it was “comfortable in their positions” [in the government of national unity] where they “enjoy the overseas travel and the security guards”.
“They are now in positions to influence policymaking and the direction of resources towards those things that they’ve been moaning about all these years,” said Moeng.
Bosa launched a public petition earlier this month calling for the 30% pass mark to be scrapped and replaced with a 50% minimum standard.
In a written response to queries from Bosa in October last year, Gwarube said she did not have any concrete plans to amend the pass rate.
Meanwhile, the Zero Dropout Campaign has called for urgent interventions to address high dropout rates, as well as the throughput rates — the percentage of learners who pass a qualification within the required time.
“Calls for the ‘pass mark’ to be raised, without first addressing the foundational challenges our education sector is still grappling with, may not lead to the desired result,” said the Zero Dropout Campaign’s Colin Wardle.
When announcing the matric results on Monday, Gwarube said the throughput rate was 63%, a 1% increase from 2023.
“This is in line with other middle-income countries,” she said.
Gwarube also said that of the 1 222 851 learners who started grade 1 in 2013, only 724 156 were enrolled as full-time candidates in grade 12 in 2024.
But she cautioned that the number of learners who did not make it to matric does not indicate a high dropout rate “for various reasons”, including learners migrating to technical vocational education and training colleges or private schools, as well as failing in other grades.
“We cannot therefore classify all of those who did not enrol for grade 12 in 2024 as having dropped out. This would be a misrepresentation,” Gwarube said.
The Zero Dropout Campaign has suggested the department traces learners through the schooling system.
“Once they enter grade R they are given a unique learner number, so that we are able to have a much clearer sense in real time, as opposed to waiting for learners to get to grade 10 or 12 to find out what the throughput rate is,” Wadle said.
According to the department, the number of full-time candidates writing the national senior certificate exams increased from 691 160 in 2023 to 705 291 in 2024.
Gwarube said there was an “urgent need to improve foundation literacy and numeracy” after the class of 2024 reported a decrease in performance in physical science and maths.
In 2024, 69.1% of learners passed maths, an increase from 63.5% in 2023. Physical sciences saw a slight decline to 75.6% in 2024 from 76.2% in 2023.
The Western Cape achieved the highest pass rates in maths (78%) and physical science (79.4%).
Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi criticised the low number of learners taking those subjects, and called on the department to release a report on the results to evaluate how many achieved 50% or more in maths and physical science.
“The basic education system is not producing enough matriculants with strong problem solving, critical thinking, literacy and numeracy skills, who can go onto higher education, training or apprenticeship,” he said.
In her Monday address, Gwarube said there were plans to address problems, including by expanding early childhood development (ECD) before children enter the basic education system and improving the quality of teaching and learning in the foundation phase.
“I believe that this strategic reorientation towards ECD and the foundation phase will improve the quality of the learning outcomes we are able to achieve throughout the system,” she said.
Former member of the Gauteng Executive Council for Education Mary Metcalfe said Gwarube’s plans to expand ECD programmes is “critical in addressing current challenges in education”.
Meanwhile, the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) achieved an overall pass rate of 98.47% in the 2024 examinations, the highest pass rate recorded in the past five years.
The IEB said all candidates who completed the exams obtained a pass that qualifies them for tertiary study.
Of the 2024 cohort, 89.37% achieved entry to degree study, compared with 88.59% in 2023, and 7.56% qualified for diploma study, compared with 8.31% in 2023.
And 1.53% of its candidates achieved entry for study at the higher certificate level, compared with 1.57% in 2023.
After the release of the matric results, Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane and Premier Panyaza Lesufi have called for a standard examination for both IEB and NSC learners to bridge the financial gap.
“Even at university we get to write the same exam. So we are saying, why do we not prepare our learners early, have them write the same exam at university but they can’t do that in high school?” Lesufi told the media.
The DA had not responded to the Mail & Guardian’s queries on the proposed standard examination by the time of publication.