Matric should not be the only metric by which we measure success — we must bring back regular assessments

The wait for learners, teachers, parents and anyone with a vested interest in our education system is over: Matric results are out, and the 81% pass rate is the best we’ve ever achieved, in spite of the pandemic and its impact on this cohort.

But is this improved pass rate really an indicator of social and economic progress?

Our Constitution stipulates that everyone in South Africa has the right to access education. Building on this, the South African Schools Act of 1996 outlined the purpose of education and training, envisioning a “new national system for schools which will redress past injustices in educational provision, provide an education of progressively high quality for all learners, lay a strong foundation for the development of all our people’s talents and capabilities… contribute to the eradication of poverty and the economic well-being of society”.

If these are the aims of the South African education system, then the matric pass rate as a measure of social and economic progress is insufficient, because it doesn’t account for all learners. There are several reports on dropout rates, with the government’s own statistics highlighting this year that 481,955 — almost half — of the one million learners who were in Grade 10 three years ago did not manage to secure a National Senior Certificate (NSC).

Young people aren’t leaving education because of immediate employment or alternative education opportunities. Last year, 75.1% of the 10 million 15 to 24-year-olds were unemployed; 37% of them were not in employment, education, or training. Half of these unemployed individuals did not finish or pass matric. The dropout rate remains devastatingly high, even as we celebrate our highest-ever pass rate.

But getting a matric doesn’t necessarily get you a job, either. Of the 7.9 million people who were unemployed in the first quarter of 2022, a staggering 40% had a matric certificate. Your chances of employment improve exponentially with a bachelor’s pass, which opens the door to tertiary education — last year less than 3% of unemployed persons were graduates. This year, 38.4% of our learners achieved a Bachelor pass — our highest total yet. 

We should challenge the assumption that matric is a valid and reliable measure for social and economic progress. But of equal if not greater concern, is the issue of matric currently being the only externally validated, standardised measure of performance we have in our system.

This is concerning because by the time we get the matric results, it’s too late for us to do anything. It is highly probable that this year, nearly three-quarters of a million young adults will be joining the 7.5 million 15 to 24-year-olds who are already unemployed.

If we’re going to fundamentally change the trajectory of our children’s futures, and our country’s prospects, we must think differently about how we measure outcomes.

In a chronicle by William Rosen “The Most Powerful Idea in the World”, Rosen uses the process of inventing the steam engine to illustrate that we achieve amazing progress by setting clear goals and selecting the right measures, which in turn allow us to collect accurate data, conduct insightful analysis, and take action which delivers results.

We have seen this work in education. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2 set out to “Ensure that children universally — including both boys and girls — will be able to complete a full course of primary education by 2015”. This saw an increase in primary school net enrolment from 83% in 2000 to 91% in 2015, and ensured that the number of out-of-school children was nearly halved — from 100 million in 2000 to 57 million in 2015.