DA concerned about high dropout rate of learners in Limpopo

LIMPOPO – The DA in the province has congratulated the 2019 class on improving the provincial matric pass rate and congratulated the 19 022 learners who achieved bachelor passes. They are however concerned over the amount of learners who dropped out of the education system since enrolling in Gr 10 in 2017.

Read more: Limpopo achieves lowest pass rate of 73,2%

The DA leader in Limpopo, Jacques Smalle says in a statement that the party is concerned that of the 168 847 learners who enrolled in Gr 10 in 2017; only 51 855 learners passed the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams which means that only 30,7% of Gr 10 learners actually wrote and passed matric. Smalle says it has become a trend for provinces to cull learners by wanting to improve their results and the DA calls on the MEC for Education, Polly Boshielo to investigate this practice in the province and to condemn it.

“Every child has the right to quality basic education and the vast drop-out rates is a matter of  grave concern. If this trend continues more than half of the learners from Limpopo who enrol in Gr 1 this year, will never get to write their NSC exams,” he said.

Read more: Matric 2019: Real pass rate is 38.9%

He added that the “sluggish pace of learning and teaching in the province” resulted in 134 schools not achieving a 40% pass rate”. Of these 134 schools, 31 schools achieved a pass rate of between 0 – 19 % and 103 schools achieved a pass rate of 20-39,9%. Nine schools in the province received a 0% pass rate, which is an increase to last year’s three.

In conclusion he said that the DA urges Boshielo to provide leadership to bring an end to the continued downward trajectory of the education system as well as the lack of skilled youth who will never be able to enter the formal labour market.