Do matric results really mean anything?

Congratulations to the matric class of 2020! Hopefully your generation can ask the tough questions that our generation hasn’t. Good luck with that.

I’ve always been astonished at our tone when it comes to the matric results. We seem to revel in general stats that, with a little investigation, tell an incomplete picture. Now, take nothing away from the kids with multiple distinctions, schools with 100% pass rates and teachers adding another perfect year to their records.

While we’re not taking anything away from them, perhaps it’s time to start looking at giving something to those who did well but did not meet our norm of what’s great.

I’m talking about the kid who walked 2km to school and had to study by candlelight, or even the kid who had to wait until 8pm to be picked up because their single parent worked two jobs.

Going through school in South Africa can be an exhausting process depending on where you find yourself, physically and metaphorically, so some achievements should be lauded. And, yes, they should be lauded even if it’s not the 30th consecutive 100% pass rate that well-resourced schools have gotten used to achieving.

Indeed, a 60% average isn’t something we’re used to getting excited about when compared to those hitting A-averages with multiple distinctions, but what if we reversed the kids’ situations a little? What if the A average student from (insert former Model C school name here) was put in the shoes of a public school servicing a small dorp?

Better yet, what if you took away internet at home and the computer to type notes while you’re at it?

Do you think that A average would still be there? I mean, it’s possible but it would be far more difficult to obtain.

This mental experiment isn’t meant to persuade anybody to take away the advantages of some kids. It’s meant to persuade us to understand the lesser praised achievements, the ones we don’t even observe as achievements.

Truth be told, if we’re only celebrating the “top achievers” in the traditional sense then the message going out is school is meant to only teach what’s in the books so you can repeat it later while maybe understanding it. What does that really help?

It’s not like most of us will be able to answer some of those trigonometry questions any more.

If, however, school is supposed to be teaching the skills of learning and test one’s abilities to engage in education, then we should probably find a way of praising the kid who went from a 35% to a 70% pass in the same way we praise the kid who went from a 79% to an 81%.

Similarly, we should also find a way of praising the kid who hit a 75% despite his teachers not showing up to school, or not being able to access any teaching during lockdown in some way that’s illustrative of that achievement.

Sure, the kid who hit a sweet 95% with the Study & Master guides at their disposal (those saved me in matric) and not having to be concerned about their next meal is still a massive achievement. I just don’t think that the achievement of the 75% kid should be ignored.

But it’s not just the poor kids the system ignores. It’s effectively all of them. The question gets asked over and over, “what is a young adult going to do with a matric?”

We have a failing secondary schooling system with little ambition but to get learners into university (read university and not tertiary education if we’re honest). Even if it succeeded, we don’t have the resources to even place the majority of passing matriculants.

We then have a popular rhetoric of “you need to go to university, otherwise your life is over” reinforced by politicians and business alike. Add to that a history of unequal disadvantage which, politically, is better to exploit than to solve, which few are willing to reflect on because it’s just easier to fight than deal with the issue.

So yeah, there’s a lot to be done but little can be said of the result itself. Even if we saw a rise in the pass rate instead of the drop, it still wouldn’t tell the stories which matter; the stories of overcoming societal burdens to get a good mark and despite that good mark not being the great mark it needs to be for somebody to take notice. Getting that good mark is a great achievement all the same.

So congrats to the class of 2020! There was so much asked of you and you did it! Some of you may not be happy but if you gave it your best shot, you shouldn’t let it get you down and instead keep pushing to make your best shot better. Some of you are elated and deserve celebrating but understand and appreciate everything it took to get you where you are.

Here is my challenge to the class of 2020; you were taken through the system we all went through but in a really obscure way.

Combine your observations of the system with your knowledge and find us a way to not only better educate your successors but to reinterpret what success is for the betterment of South Africa.

Richard Anthony Chemaly. Entertainment attorney, radio broadcaster and lecturer of communication ethics.

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