Although there are no immediate plans to scrap the 30% pass mark, which pupils can attain in some subjects and still pass matric, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon with the announcement by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube that she is to form an advisory council to consider policy reforms, including the possibility of revisiting the 30% pass mark.
The low percentage has long been a bone of contention, with little chance of change while successive ANC ministers ruled the ministry, but with the DA’s Gwarube now in charge as part of the Government of National Unity, it appears there is the possibility of a conversation on the issue.
Let’s be clear: the 30% pass mark is intended to ensure that the school conveyor belt continues pushing pupils forward and out of the system, making way for those coming from lower grades, and making the outgoing pupils someone else’s problem.
There is little motivation for pupils to strive for better when they know that even the most rudimentary knowledge will get them through, but through to what?
Pupils who barely pass matric struggle at tertiary institutions, where great emphasis is placed on individual effort, and in the employment market where only the most menial jobs will be available to them.
Of course it will be no simple thing to increase the pass mark to the mooted 50%.
More schools or classes will be needed to accommodate those who don’t make the grade, and teachers themselves will have to be graded to ensure they are of benefit to their charges.
Gwarube’s policy reforms should include taking on the teachers’ unions, which have been a disservice to pupils in their blind defence of their members.
In an increasingly technology-driven world, reforms should also encompass doing away with maths literacy, or continue the path of excluding pupils from the digital economy.