We once again heard a positive upbeat message from Government of improving Matric results.  The Sunday Times recently ran an article by Jonathan Jansen, who is the Rector of the Free State University, who said as far as he is concerned, that our Matric results are all a massive fraud.  That is because we set the standard so low that in certain subjects you can pass with a 30% mark and in others you only need 40% to pass – so knowing less than half your work is good enough for a pass and sometimes knowing approximately one-third of your work is good enough to get a pass.  

In a recent world report on Science and Maths, South Africa came last of all of the countries involved, based on a test done in all of those countries and so it is quite clear that our standard of education, particularly when it comes to Maths, is absolutely inadequate, at the bottom of the pile and passing at 30% or 40% in those conditions really does not mean very much.  That also ignores the fact that many people who cannot pass Maths then elect to do Maths Literacy which is a simple version of Maths and as a result the vast majority of pupils entering the job market are basically incapable of doing many mathematical calculations – something of a problem if we need them to start businesses one day so that unemployment in South Africa can be improved.