SAFTU Statement on the 2024 Matric Results – first posted here
SUMMARY: SAFTU congratulates the 2024 matric class on an 87% pass rate but highlights serious issues in South Africa’s education system. High dropout rates, teenage pregnancies, and inadequate university access reflect systemic problems. Many schools lack libraries, labs, and resources, worsening inequality. Budget cuts and austerity measures have led to teacher shortages and reduced support for learners. SAFTU criticizes practices like “culling” weaker students and stresses the need to address education quality, unemployment, and economic reforms. It calls for increased investment in education and equitable opportunities to break the cycle of poverty and inequality, essential for South Africa’s progress. – read more below
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) extends its warmest congratulations to the matric class 2024 for their historic achievement of an 87% pass rate. This remarkable milestone is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and resilience of learners, educators, and parents, as well as the leadership role played by the government. Special recognition is due to learners from no-fee schools who, despite limited resources, achieved outstanding results, showcasing the transformative potential of education.
However, SAFTU must raise serious concerns about the systemic issues that continue to undermine South Africa’s education system.
The Dropout Crisis
While celebrating the achievements of those who passed, we cannot ignore the alarming dropout rate. Of the 1.2 million children who entered Grade 1 in 2013, only 720,000 sat for the final matric examinations. This translates to a loss of 40% of learners over the 12-year schooling cycle. The DBE does provide ‘retention’ rates by province and nationally – and it acknowledged that the national retention rate is only 63% – but this is as low as 55% in the Free State. This ongoing crisis demands urgent attention. The cumulative effect of drop-out is alarming levels of youth not in employment, Not in Education and not in Training (NEET). The Quarterly Labour Force Survey of 2024 indicates that 3.6m of youth aged between 15-24 are NEET – this is 35.2% of this age group.
SAFTU reiterates its call to end the practice of “culling” learners, particularly in Grades 10 and 11, where schools focus on selecting only the best-performing learners to write matric. Such practices, aimed at artificially boosting matric pass rates, are profoundly unethical and must be investigated.
Furthermore, teenage pregnancy remains a significant contributor to dropouts, adding to the army of young people who become the face of unemployment. In the 2022/2023 financial year, approximately 150,000 girls aged 10 to 19 fell pregnant.
Government of South Africa. This equates to nearly 365 teenage girls giving birth daily, including about 10 births to mothers younger than 15.
Bhekisisa. The prevalence of teenage pregnancy increases with age. In 2022, around 0.3% of 14-year-old females were pregnant, rising to over 10% among 19-year-olds.
The government must prioritise interventions to support teenage mothers in completing their education.
University Access and Success
Preliminary data reveals that while 40% of matriculants achieved university entrance passes, not enough possess the critical mathematics and science skills needed to reinvigorate the economy. This increase will mean that there will be increased pressure for admission into the higher education system, while at the same time, the government is lagging in providing sufficient places and quality learning opportunities in the TVET Colleges and Community Colleges.
Additionally, SAFTU notes that lack of funding to support academic success and financial exclusions will contribute to university failure and dropout rates. This perpetuates the cycle of inequality and limits the chances of these young people breaking out of poverty.
Education and Unemployment
The link between education and unemployment is stark. According to the latest Labour Force Survey, those who drop out before completing matric are far more likely to remain unemployed. Even those who achieve degrees face bleak prospects, with many university graduates—including doctors—unable to find jobs, as evidenced by the recent protest of unemployed medical professionals in the Eastern Cape.
Structural unemployment, exacerbated by deindustrialisation and the precarious nature of the economy, continues to marginalise the majority of black South Africans. The economic system must be overhauled to create meaningful opportunities for all.
Quality of Education
The emphasis on matric results should refocus attention on the quality of education in South Africa. International comparisons reveal that the country lags in critical areas such as reading comprehension, mathematics, and science. SAFTU appeals to the new Minister of Education and the Government of National Unity to prioritise these challenges and implement targeted interventions.
In reading comprehension, BBC reported, “Eight out of 10 South African school children struggle to read by the age of ten, an international study has found. South Africa ranked last out of 57 countries assessed in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which tested the reading ability of 400,000 students globally in 2021.”
A 2024 report by the Centre for Risk Analysis found,
Just 6,9% of matric candidates will pass maths with a grade of 70% to 100% – a smaller proportion than was the case in 2008;
In the poorest quintile of schools, less than 1/100 matric candidates will receive a distinction in maths;
Just 28% of people aged 20 or older have completed high school;
The black higher education participation rate is just 15,6%, while that for Indian and white people (aged 20–24) is 49,3% and 52,8% for the whites.
The lack of proper infrastructure is one reason. Last July, the government’s national Education Facility Management System showed that of our country’s 22 511 public schools, 74% lack libraries, and 26% have a designated library room; only 11% (3312) have books in these rooms. The Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal are worst off. And only a third of schools have a computer centre. In 2016, all were meant to have these facilities as part of the minimum norms and standards for public schools.
Addressing Inequality in Education
SAFTU calls for urgent reforms to ensure equitable education for all learners. The disparity in resources between private and public schools and within the public school system across quintiles, such as access to laboratories, libraries, and manageable class sizes, perpetuates class and racial inequalities. The DBE’s data indicates that 74% of schools do not have a library, and 83% do not have a laboratory, with Limpopo and Eastern being the most negatively affected.
Budget Cuts and Austerity Measures
SAFTU strongly condemns the government’s counterproductive austerity measures, which have led to job losses among educators, reductions in scholar transport, feeding schemes, and cuts to no-fee schools. Provinces like the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are already facing the consequences of these devastating policies, with far fewer teachers available for students today than when the austerity regime began during the Covid-19 crisis in October 2020.
Since then, experts suggest that the Treasury and International Monetary Fund are squeezing state services dramatically: “The post-Covid period has already seen a 7.6% per capita spending reduction, and the 2024 Budget pencilled in a further 3.5% in this and the next two years.” That amounts to an 18.1% per person cut to state services in general. (During the late 1990s, GEAR austerity only had a 6.3% per person shrinkage.) The 2024-25 education budget cuts of R4.1 billion (in real terms) are just one reflection.
Teacher pay is one victim of the austerity regime. When the previous medium-term budget came out last October, SAFTU complained that in early 2020, Minister Godongwana’s predecessor, Minister Tito Mboweni, reneged on the last leg of a three-year wage increase contractually agreed to in negotiations. Pay increases for most teachers have been below inflation.
As a result, teachers have been victims of job cuts and rising post vacancies and have been underpaid by an average of R22,000 these past five years. Moreover, most teachers in South Africa fall under category 14 of Relative Equivalent Qualification Value (REQV), the minimum educational requirement for a fully qualified teacher. These dedicated public servants constitute 66% of the country’s teachers, whose salaries have not kept pace with inflation. We are convinced that wage increases below inflation are not unique to teachers.
The country’s children are among those without a sufficiently powerful voice to defend their school budgets. The government must abandon austerity and invest in education as a national priority. Corporate taxes were 51.5% in 1992 and were ratcheted down to 27% by 2023, with nothing to show for this generosity by way of a higher rate of job creation and fixed investment. The United Nations has estimated that South Africa loses R1.1 trillion through illicit cash outflows and mispricing yearly. It is long overdue for a genuine commitment to be made by the wealthy in our society, the world’s most unequal.
At the same time, we urge the government to overhaul the economic system to address deindustrialisation, inequality, and unemployment.
Conclusion
For five years, since COVID-19 posed an existential threat to our society, SAFTU has worked closely with advocacy groups – such as the Cry of the Xcluded network – to improve our national budget. Our teachers’ unions have fought hard to protect the budget, and we respect NGOs and lawyers using constitutional strategies. However, we recognise our efforts have been inadequate.
A quality education system is the cornerstone of a functional economy and an equitable society. Without it, South Africa risks entrenching the systemic inequalities that continue to marginalise the black majority. SAFTU will continue to fight for a just and inclusive education system and economy that uplifts all South Africans.
