While noting that there had been a “concerted effort” by government to improve the pass rate of matriculants, industry body Business Unity South Africa (Busa) acting CEO Peggy Drodskie said it remained unclear what impact the final-stage introduction of a revised curriculum in 2014 would have on the employability of the year’s graduating matriculants.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced in 2010 that a new long-term educational plan – Schooling 2025 – would replace the highly criticised outcomes-based education system introduced in 1998.

In accordance with the initiative, each subject was now guided by a single, comprehensive Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), which provided details on the content to be taught by teachers, as well as how learners should be assessed.

“We are in the dark a bit, as we’re not sure how the new syllabus is going to impact on the employability of the [2014] matriculants…[particularly with regard to Maths and Science], which are important in business.

“We will only know this when the [school-leavers] actually start entering the workplace,” she told Engineering News Online on Tuesday.

Drodskie’s comments came a day after Motshekga announced that the national Matric pass rate had dropped from 78.2% in 2013 to 75.8% in 2014, while pass rates for Maths had decreased from 59.1% in the prior year to 53.5% in2014 and pass rates for Physical Science from 67.4% to 61.5% over the same period.

While conceding the possibility that the dampened Matric showing was the result of the new CAPS-aligned curriculum, Drodskie was optimistic that it was rather the impact of higher educational standards.

“We’re hoping that the reason is not merely that the syllabus has changed, but rather that the quality of the education has improved,” she said.

Drodskie added, however, that the National Senior Certificate (NSC) did not adequately equip school-leavers with the skills required by employers.

“The school system [still] doesn't really give learners the basic skills needed to be employed. The employers are very willing to provide additional training, but they’re not able to provide them with the basics that they should be getting at school level,” she maintained.

Moreover, efforts by business to assist in the schooling of learners through the provision of extra lessons were not always welcomed.

“It is difficult to identify the reasons for this, but possible explanations are that provincial education authorities have not provided relevant authority to local schools to approve the extra classes.

“Another suggestion is that there is a fear by the teachers that they will be shown to be incompetent in the area in which the support is being offered,” she outlined.

LOWER ‘ACTUAL’ PASS RATE

Meanwhile, civil rights organisation AfriForum this week appealed to government to assume responsibility for the lower 2014 national Matric pass rate, asserting in a statement that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) fell short of its responsibility of providing NSC learners with the enabling tools, environment and curriculum.

“The department should urgently assume responsibility for this figure and tackle the causes behind this drop-out rate head-on.

“This includes the lack of mother-language education, inefficient curriculum options, textbook delivery problems…actions by some education unions, inadequate teacher training opportunities, dysfunctional schools and problems with discipline,” the group argued.

The organisation further noted that, if the number of learners enrolled in Grade 1 in 2003 was compared with the number of learners who passed matric in 2014, the “actual” pass rate was below 45%.

According to AfriForum deputy CEO Alana Bailey, a DBE report stated that, while 1.18-million learners had enrolled for Grade 1 for the first time in 2003, only 689 625 learners wrote matric in 2014 – 58% of the original group.

STRATEGIC PROGRESS

Also reacting to the matric pass rate results, government’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education commended the department and other stakeholders for their contribution to the “good work” of successful matriculants, adding that the 2014 NSC examinations were a “significant milestone”, as they marked the completion of the implementation of the new curriculum throughout the education system.

Despite the drop in pass rates, the committee said in a statement that the decrease was largely owing to changes in the new curriculum, which were aimed at improving the overall quality.

“It is further noted that provinces which started at a low base a few years ago in terms of results are showing progress. This shows that the department’s strategic interventions introduced in the education sector in recent years are bearing fruit,” it stated.

The committee, however, urged the department to intensify its support in respect of Maths and Physical Science, in which it conceded that learners continued to underperform.