By Mariette Pittaway – DA Spokesperson on Education in the Free State Legislature – The DA in the Free State would like to congratulate the matric class of 2022, who once again proved to be the best in the country. It speaks volumes about the resilience shown by our scholars, who emerged victorious despite the system working against them and the continuous rolling blackouts. Thank you to the teachers, parents, and guardians who contributed to the success of the class of 2022.
The Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, announced the official pass rate for the Free State as 85.7% which is a staggering 2.8 percentage point increase from the previous year.
It is however disappointing that the Free State experienced a mammoth total of 40.6% or 25 033 learners, who started grade 10 in 2020 but did not write the matriculation exams in 2022. Taking this into account, the “real pass rate” in the Free State is 52.6%.
In 2023, this situation proves to be worsening with parents of learners in schools like Dr Blok in Heidedal, who are clearly disgruntled about their kids being forced to learn math in Sotho despite their home language being Afrikaans. At the beginning of the 2023 academic year, there were still Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners waiting to be placed in various schools. According to the MEC of Education, Tate Makgoe, “Many applications were received on Wednesday, January 11… Our challenge remains Grade 8, which will be resolved by the end of January.” The DA has also received complaints from schools that have not yet received their teaching and learning support materials. These problems are only a few examples of a system that is working against our scholars.
The Free State experienced the second-highest dropout percentage nationally, coming second only to the Northern Cape. The national dropout rate is 31.8%.
The DA is highly concerned with this trend of learners dropping out and will continue to place pressure on the department to put in place effective monitoring measures that will ensure that no learner gets left behind.
Mariette Pittaway
DA Spokesperson on Education in the Free State Legislature
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Mariette Pittaway |
| DA Spokesperson on Education in the Free State Legislature |
CENTRAL NEWS
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