The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) is calling on the Department of Basic Education to develop strategies that will enable South Africa to move from the bottom of international tables for mathematics and science.
UPDATE: The Department of Basic Education has now responded to the claims made by CDE.
CDE Executive director Ann Bernstein says South Africa has one of the worst-performing education systems. This contradicts the praise given to the DBE by President Cyril Ramaphosa who declared a silent revolution is taking place in the sector.
The President was referring to the matric pass rate achieved by the class of 2023 of 80%. Ramaphosa said the matric pass rate must be applauded, as the performance of the country’s school learners improved.
Bernstein suggests only looking at the matric pass rate can be a misleading indicator of the state of the education system in South Africa. It is estimated that around 50% of learners in Grade 6 will not reach Grade 12.
Many drop out many fail and that is the wrong way to look at our system.
The CDE released a series of reports this week on South Africa’s education system to demonstrate the challenges facing the system.
Key findings showed that in 2021, after a year of school, more than 50% of Grade 1 learners don’t know all the letters in the alphabet, around 78% of Grade 4 learners could not read for meaning in any language and 62% of Grade 5 learners do not have “basic mathematical knowledge”.
The advocacy organisation recommended five priority areas that must be addressed to improve education outcomes in the country.
Their recommendations include addressing corruption in the education sector, introducing a new leadership team in the DBE, improving teacher performance and raising accountability levels.
To improve teacher performance, the CDE says higher standards of teacher training must be introduced. Additionally, more effective support must be provided to teachers and making provision for the recruitment of foreign teachers in Mathematics and Science.
