Matric results: Fire Naledi Pandor

Polokwane taught us that South Africans are tired of promises and of people with posh voices telling us what to do and doing nothing themselves.

We begin 2008 with dreadful matric results — 21 500 young people failed in Gauteng alone. How is that possible in the wealthiest, best resourced province in Africa? In all more than 200 000 matriculants failed — how’s that for smashing dreams?

The pass rate has declined each year since 2004; in 2007 the pass rate was 65,2%, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor unblushingly tells us. Why hasn’t she been fired? In every year since she has been in office results have deteriorated — so why is she still able to draw a large salary and afford the expensive clothes she struts around in after emerging from chauffeur-driven vehicles?

She tells us that: “The endorsement rate [those with passes that enable them to pursue tertiary study] has declined from 18,2% in 2004 to 15,1% in 2007. However, the number of learners able to take advantage of university study has remained consistently above 85 000.”

Yes, but in 2004 there were only 467 985 matriculants, this year there were 564 775 — if we want to reach economic targets of 6% we will have to import workers or give jobs to well-educated refugees instead of shipping them back home. We are simply not educating enough young South Africans to take charge of this economy.

Earlier this year too, Pandor told Parliament that just under half of those who began high school in 1999 (675 132) made it to matric (322 492) in 2003.

If you are poor and black your chances of rising to the top are getting worse, forget quotas and black economic empowerment, they’re designed to make the already privileged super-wealthy — those measures coupled with this atrocious educational system ensure the poor will remain that way.

This year, Pandor had the cheek to tell those who failed matric they cannot go back to school to try again, there will be “special” classes at weekends to help those who want to try again. The haughty Ms Pandor said to those who failed: “I call on you to join us in 2008 in our national tutorial programme for candidates who did not pass in 2007 … If you wish to succeed we will provide you with all the necessary help.”

Why was the “necessary help” not given to ensure those young people did not fail in the first instance and why should we believe it will be forthcoming now?

If you think crime is bad, wait for the Pandor Crime Tsunami that is about to hit us as unemployed young people face scant options.

The unions also have to be accountable. The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union has succeeded in building a generation of teachers who simply don’t care. It’s important that worker’s rights are protected but not that they are so over-protected the under-performers can never be fired and the future of children is wrecked because they don’t receive adequate education.

It has to be easier to fire those who think work is a right and not a privilege. The first to be fired needs to be Pandor.

And schools need to be more conducive to learning. It is unacceptable that many township schools still have faulty doors, if any, broken windows, no playing fields, labs or libraries. Many well-meaning foreign donors have given television sets to allow distance learning, but because theft is so rampant the sets remain chained up in locked cupboards, teachers too scared to remove them lest they get stolen. Or they sit in the staffroom where teachers watch soapies instead of teaching.

A press release from the Ministry of Education tells us that “the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa [AsgiSA] has focused attention on training skilled personnel in the areas of engineering, science and technology. Learners need maths and science to study further in engineering, science and technology. Universities require a higher grade pass in these subjects.

“Higher grade passes increased from 25 217 in 2006 to 25 415 in 2007 and standard grade from 110 452 in 2006 in 123 813 in 2007. Higher grade science pass numbers in 2007 [28 122] were down on 2006 [29 781], but there was a significant increase from 81 151 in 2006 to 87 485 in 2007 in the number of standard-grade passes.”

Big deal, we don’t need more lab technicians, we need more scientists and engineers. As the Institute of Chartered Accountants has found in their ongoing battle to recruit students worthy of bursaries to study accountancy, many young people are stymied from studying further because there aren’t teachers with the skills to teach either higher grade maths or science and so children are forced to study at standard grade.

If this is how AsgiSA is focusing attention on improving skills we need to disband that too.
The Mbeki years have been golden years for the PR industry — there has been one costly, useless initiative launched, one after the other, Nepad, AsgiSA, all wonderful news for PRs and event-planners as endless mealy-mouthed conferences have been born in their wake. But none have done anything of real value.

Mbeki’s failure to fire non-performing cabinet ministers and provincial ministers is dealing body blows to the future success of the South African economy.

Let’s interrogate Pandor’s statements after the results came out. She observed that the national matric oversight body, Umalusi, pointed to “a few concerns that require attention. These include poor translation of papers, and some basic errors in the format of question papers”. Such “concerns” are major obstacles to young people being able to understand questions and formulate appropriate answers.

A matric exam paper marker I spoke to, who has had 30 years of teaching in township schools before she gave up in despair because of lax standards she blames on Sadtu and the state, said many pupils could barely write in English. “SMS language is a major problem, but the way questions were posed to children also saw confused answers.”

Pandor continues her statement as if she has nothing to do with this state of affairs: “Another is that national and provincial education departments are not administering or supporting the system with the high levels of administrative efficiency and service that should accompany a demanding curriculum and a high-stakes examination … many schools spend two to three terms without textbooks, teachers get very little curriculum support, and teachers in grade eight and nine do not view their teaching as part of a skills-development continuum feeding into grade 12 and beyond.”

Good grief woman, what are you doing about it?

She continues: “We have unqualified teachers in some classrooms, inadequate laboratories and negligible support to schools.” She talks as though this is the first year such challenges have come to her attention.

Look at some of these results: the huge provinces of Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga managed to produce just 6 500 university entrants each. North West will see 5 061 go to university if parents are fortunate enough to raise the funds — and pray their children won’t become among the 200 000 unemployed graduates (StatsSA, 2006) because universities teach theory and don’t care about effective career guidance.

KwaZulu-Natal saw 21 443 pupils with a possibility of tertiary study, the Free State 5 776, Northern Cape a pathetic 1 208 (or 11,9% of those who wrote matric exams in that province). Pandor congratulated Gauteng for getting 17 307 (or 20,4%) candidates who obtained a university pass — yet 21 500 failed — what is there to celebrate?

Western Cape achieved a pass rate of 80,6%, the top pass rate of all provinces, “yet still a decline of 3,1% on the 2006 result. Of these 10 300 [24,7%] candidates obtained endorsement.” Interestingly, Pandor did not congratulate the provincial minister of education, Cameron Dugmore, whose passion for his job shows in better educational standards. He should take Pandor’s place at the helm.

Pandor is right when she says “Parents must take a keen and deep interest in success.”

The failure of South African parents to get involved in their children’s education shows in alarming pass rates and functional illiteracy. Learning begins at home. South Africa has one of the highest literacy rates on the continent. There is no reason why parents cannot read to children at night, have books in the home or help children with homework. This is a society of self-obsessed adults and children are suffering.

The results in early December of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which showed that between 86% and 96% of South African children who speak and were tested in African languages did not reach the mark, is a massive indictment of parents. Schools can be blamed, but the real influence of a reading culture for primary school children is with parents. South African parents are massively failing their children. South Africa ranked last of 40 countries in reading and comprehension levels (as well as maths and science) in their home language at grade four level.

It is parents too who need to demand better education at schools and support those teachers who try. Pandor acknowledges: “Support through efficient administration, efficient procurement and general responsiveness affects schools positively.” So why isn’t she giving it?

And why aren’t teachers at schools with the best results paid more? Dugmore, speaking of Western Cape results, noted: “Highlights of this year’s results include the many schools in poor areas that excel despite a range of challenges … Examples include the Centre for Science and Technology in Khayelitsha [Cosat] that has achieved a 100% pass rate for the past three years.”

Among the gloom of lazy politicians and teachers are remarkable children who ignore the odds and perform brilliantly, take Ruhan Meyer, of Hoër Jongenskool Paarl, who took 10 subjects for matric and achieved A symbols for all. Many children just scraped through, but given the challenges they faced, they’re all minor miracles. I hope we as adults develop the wisdom to respect and serve them better in 2008.