The Department of Basic Education confirmed that the matric class of 2022 was its biggest cohort, with the department also taking pride in the progress that this group of matriculants has achieved.
Recently, the Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga announced that the National Senior Certificate (NSC) pass rate has increased to 80.1% from 76.4% in 2021.
Teacher union, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has also commended the teachers and support personnel in the education sector for the recorded improvement under the most trying of conditions for the class of 2022, that was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic since their Grade ten class.
In a statement, Gcina Mtya, who was also part of the 2022 matric cohort has shared:
The year was quite tough as some subjects needed to be done practically but due to the situation of my school we could not afford to.
Mtya also hinted that other challenges that surfaced included the high rate of crime and the lack of security in Eastern Cape schools.
According to Basic Education, the class of 2022 recorded 38,4% Bachelor passes, and the majority of them are from no-fee paying schools in Quintiles 1 to 3 at 64,4%, whilst there were just 20% of Bachelor passes in these schools in 2005. The teacher union has applauded schools in Quintiles 1 to 3 for their progress.
Equal Education has also indicated that the national pass rate does not accurately reflect the true state of the education system in South Africa because it hides conditions such as learner dropouts before even reaching their matric year.
It is for this reason that the Equal Education has also proposed that the education sector ought to use the 2022 results to reflect on its quality and for Basic Education to carry out a comprehensive intervention.
The teacher union is also of the opinion that the matric results should not be used as a yardstick to assess the performance of South Africa’s education system.
Sadtu has since called for a review of the current school resourcing formula, as more needs to be done to improve the quality of the South African education sector.
