The Democratic Alliance (DA) has criticized the high dropout rate of South Africa’s grade 12 class, claiming that the true pass rate for the 2022 matric class is only 54.6%, not the reported 80.1%. The party stated that over 330,000 pupils dropped out of grade 12 in 2022, with a dropout rate of 31.8%.
Speaking at the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results in Johannesburg, the DA’s Baxolile Nodada said that unless the Department of Basic Education addresses the issues of the high dropout rate and the inadequate curriculum that fails to support pupils, the future of the majority of matriculants will be bleak. Nodada emphasized that it is important to be honest about the assessment of these outcomes and account for them, as these dropouts join the ranks of unemployed young South Africans.
The DA also called for the Department of Basic Education to address the twin issues of high dropout rates and ineffective curriculum, and to ensure that pupils who fell through the cracks due to unfavourable learning conditions are accounted for.
Despite the criticism, the 2022 matric results showed an improvement of 3.7% from 2021 and the 80.1% pass rate is the second highest since 2019. The 2022 cohort also attained the highest number of bachelor passes in the history of the National Senior Certificate exams. Quality assurance body Umalusi gave the results a positive review.
