MATRIC PREPARATION STARTS IN GRADE 1

The dichotomy in South Africa's educational landscape was again glaringly evident following the 2015 Independent Examination Board and the National Senior Certificate Examination results. This is so because South Africa has two separate and inherently unequal educational systems. One that proudly proclaims across-the-board student achievement, while the other desperately seeks a lifeline in a sea of student mediocrity. Now that the dust has settled, commentators have crunched the general matriculation numbers, and their conclusions paint a gloomier picture than simply a 5% drop in the pass rate from the previous year. The drop in pass rate proffered by the Basic Education Department is meaningless without taking into account the department's technical report. It is no secret that marks were manipulated upwards to offset the thousands of 'promoted' students who, on merit, did not academically qualify to take the National Senior Certificate Examination. These promoted students, plus an additional 40,000 quasi-progressed students, amongst other factors, contributed to adjusted pass mark manipulation. The country's basic educational system is in crisis mode. This was not readily apparent from Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga's address when announcing the 2015 matric results. Other than announcing a drop in the pass rate, there was little substance in her address. As everyone knows the devil is in the details. The details revealed an extreme drop in raw marks - a development which apparently was too embarrassing for the minister to address. There will be no light at the end of the tunnel unless and until the department gets back to basics in recognizing that the reading, writing and counting foundation for matric starts in Grade 1. Until then millions of our young people remain captive to an appallingly inferior and wretched basic education system.