Cheers to the class of 2017 on 75.1% Matric pass rate

More than 800 000 pupils, together with their families, friends and guardians and watched by political parties, education specialists and everyone else with a vested interest in the future of the country, will learn today how well they have done in the 2017 senior certificate examinations.

Department of Basic Education (DoE) Minister Angie Motshekga released the examination results yesterday evening. The DoE has cautioned even the stellar students of the class of 2017 will find slim pickings in the employment market.

“Youths bear the brunt of unemployment,” Equal Education said in a statement yesterday, and noted the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 34 years old was 38.6% according to a Stats SA survey.

“While low quality basic education and incomplete education leave young people without the suitable skills, higher education graduates are not immune to the effects of low economic growth. The graduate unemployment rate was at 7.3% in the first quarter of 2017,” Equal Education stated.

“Thus, although a tertiary qualification lessens an individual’s chances of being unemployed, it is not a guaranteed gateway to employment, especially if without workplace experience.”

It noted poor quality basic education saw “alarming numbers of pupils drop out of school before reaching matric”, which was a contributor to unemployment. One way to improve on basic education was through technology.

Professor Nicky Roberts of the University of Johannesburg’s department of childhood education is an expert on mathematics education technology enhanced learning projects in low to middle income countries.

“There is potential for technology to develop procedural fluency so students receive immediate feedback on questions which we know has a motivating factor for them,” Roberts said.

“So, instead of working through a textbook and having to look up the answers at the back of the book, the immediate feedback of what a computer application allows is a very positive motivator.”

Roberts also noted there had been a “fairly obvious” finding that the more maths one did, the better the student’s results were. Roberts warned, however, technology widened inequality in terms of who had access to it.

“Often the richer students have at least access to data. One of the key things for us was that e-educational platforms should be available to students for free and data should also be free,” Roberts said.

“Service providers should be zero-rating education platforms for equal access to opportunities otherwise it just further divides our country.”

Umalusi – responsible for overseeing the examinations and results – reported a “steady upward trend” in Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy, Physical Science and Life Science. But spokesperson Lucky Ditaunyane cautioned against extrapolating the trend into an overall improvement in the pass rate.

– amandaw@citizen.co.za

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