It's the high dropout rate we should be worried about not the matric results

An important milestone was reached in the life of many learners when the matric results were released. Some succeeded admirably but others were disappointed. They now have to make critical choices about the careers they wish to follow. For many among them, their choices could have been different if the education system was functioning optimally.

An education system has different components and dimensions. No single performance metric will be able to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the system works and where the faultlines are. A critical understanding of the efficiency of any system involves measuring changes that occur to any inputs while in the system and the quality of the outcomes. For example, the efficiency of a water reticulation and distribution system in any residential area involves measuring supply output at the main in-let meter into the distribution network, the consumption by households and a comparison of the two to understand if there is any loss due to leakages in the system. A vital metric is the loss due to leakages because this comprises loss of a vital resource. Successful municipalities pay particular attention to this measure.

The current focus on the final matric results is indeed misleading unless we also pay attention to the throughput rate of the system between grades 10 and 12. When learners register for grade 10, they register their intent to sit for the final national senior certificate examinations two years down the line. A true measure of the efficiency of the system must therefore be the proportion of those who succeed in grade 12 relative to those who registered at grade 10. Using this metric, it then becomes possible to understand what happened to the learners that did not sit for the final examination; what is called the “dropout” rate. And, it would also reveal the fact that the Western Cape has outperformed all the other provinces on both measures. This is the information that parents need in order to make informed decisions about the future of their children.

The department of basic education is aware of the need to reveal more about what happens within the system for the benefit of the parents. We must desist from using the matric results to compare the performance of provinces. There are very critical contextual issues that have a direct impact on the capacity and capability of the provincial education departments to deliver. Without factoring these in a scientific manner, the comparisons made by the department of basic education are indeed meaningless except for political point-scoring.

The department of basic education has also identified a number of vital and successful interventions that are aimed at improving the quality of our education since the beginning of the transition. We see results in the sharp rise in access and retention. An area of great need is to improve the quality of leadership and teaching in poor performing schools on a massive scale. This ironically will mean taking on the South African Democratic Teachers Union!

Poor performing schools play a significant role in the high dropout rate in grades 10 and 11. Many learners that join grade 10 from other intermediate schools, especially those located in the rural and poor areas, come with significant language and numeracy deficits. It is not possible to make up for these deficits in the three years leading to matric final examinations. The tendency among many schools facing this challenge is for the weak learners to be excluded from grade 12 through a process known as “culling” in order to please the demands of their district education officers for good results. This is where the problem lies.

High dropout rates have a direct economic impact in terms of poor utilisation of our human resources. Measuring this defect will ensure that we focus our attention and remedial interventions at points in the system that really matter.

There are three critical stakeholder components that must be managed optimally in order to deliver the best education outcomes. The state has a constitutional responsibility and mandate to provide quality school infrastructure and teaching resources. The school governing bodies and state must ensure that quality teachers are employed to impart knowledge to learners and manage the schools well. Parents must provide support to learners and the schools to optimise the learning environment. When all these components respond optimally, the desired outcomes are normally achieved.

How then do we explain the reality that schools in quintiles four and five perform reasonably well in terms of how these three stakeholder components function and interact to achieve expected outcomes while those in quintiles one, two and three perform so dismally and yet are used by more than 60% of the learners who also happen to come from poor communities?

Research has demonstrated for quite some time now that investing more in terms of quality resources at the foundation levels will ensure better outcomes at higher grades. We knew this at the onset of the transition period but we did very little to ensure that teachers were better trained better and employed at the foundation level and that quality school infrastructure and teaching materials and support were made available on an urgent basis.

To a very large degree, our goal and mission of attaining social justice, transformation and the country’s economic development depend on how the education system functions. The extent to which children from disadvantaged communities have a real opportunity to achieve educational outcomes that will enable them to be successful in the labour market, is a better indicator and predictor of whether the school system can be expected to transform existing patterns of inequality or merely reproduce them.

The 21st century world of knowledge has become very complex. New fields of research have emerged that were never imagined before. New areas of technology have emerged and created new enterprises that have grown faster than at any time in recorded history. This is unprecedented! It is clear therefore that as knowledge creation and innovation become the key economic driving forces, education in subjects critical to the development of intellectual capital will become the differentiating factor.

The reality we must accept is that our education system has consistently delivered poor outcomes despite the disproportionately high investment made through the budget allocation.

Image – Pupils work on their tablets on January 13, 2015 at Boitumelong Secondary School in Tembisa in Johannesburg, South Africa. Launched by the Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, the Big Switch On Pilot project is the first step taken by the Gauteng Department of Education to modernise public education and respond to new education imperatives for quality education. (Gallo)