The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) has recently released reports and statistics outlining the state of education in South Africa's public schools.
The findings revealed that the country's education sector has a poorer academic performance than Kenya and Tanzania and is the biggest learning under-performer relative to GDP per capita among low and middle-income countries.
South Africa's school system and state of education has been a talking point for many years now, especially as reports have surfaced revealing that 80% of Grade Four learners are unable to read with understanding, the steep figure of school drop-out rates, as well as ongoing debates around the matric pass rate.
The CDE report indicated that statistics from 2016, 2019 and 2021 show that the majority of Grade Four learners could not read for meaning in any language, just over a third of Grade Fives only had basic Maths knowledge, and more than half of Grade Ones did not know the letters of the alphabet, despite attending school for a year.
According to Ann Berstein, the Executive Director of the CDE, 50% of learners in grade six do not go on to complete matric. Half of students end up dropping out, failing or having to repeat a year, or even multiple years of school.
She further goes on to explain that the annual matric results cannot be used as an indicator of how well learners are performing, when half of them are not completing their schooling.
However, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) is going against the reports of the CDE, saying that the overall tone of their findings suggests that the country's school system is "deteriorating", when (according to the Department), this is not the case.
"The facts, in contrast, clearly point to improvements against all relevant metrics of education system performance," reads the DBE's statement.
In the statement, the DBE expresses disappointment at the fact that the researchers, and the report itself, "missed an opportunity to inform the readers about the developments in the basic [education} sector." The Department added that the Sector was not invited
In 2014, Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, established a Ministerial Task Team to identify the critical issues schools were facing and in 2016, they reported back with practical recommendations; however, none of these recommendations have been implemented.
The Ministerial Task Team report of 2016 dealt mainly with school-level instances of corruption in the form of bribery for posts, so the language of state capture is not appropriate. Moreover, Minister Angie Motshekga has remained above reproach and untainted by corruption allegations throughout her career and her tenure as the longest serving minster in the current government
The DBE, in its response to the CDE, highlights a "clear record of progress", mentioning that early learning opportunities rapidly have been expanding in recent years: "Only 40% of 5-year-olds attended an educational institution in 2002, compared to nearly 90% in 2021," explains the Department.
"Increases in participation have been steepest amongst black children, those in poorer households and for children with a disability. This implies significant improvement along the dimensions of equity, redress, and inclusivity," continues the statement.
In reference to the matric pass rate and learners making it to their matric year, the DBE highlights that the percentage of all youths who went on to complete the National Senior Certificate (NSC) has increased from less than 40% in the early 2000s, to over 60%.
The number of bachelor passes (those qualifying for university entrance) has tripled since 2008, says the Department, adding that "more than 60% of these bachelor passes now come from no-fee schools, which serve children in more vulnerable and rural contexts."
In spite of the DBE's rebuttals to the CDE's reports, it does admit that learning outcomes in South Africa's schools remain "lower and more unequal" than what they should be.
"Despite significant improvements, it does concern us that so many South African children reach the age of ten without having learned to read with adequate comprehension, for example," concedes the Department, adding that some of the recommendations made by the CDE are "sensible and align to existing government priorities."
But the DBE doesn't concede entirely, pointing out that the CDE report fails to ask what contributed to the trend of improvement in the country's learning outcomes.
