Question NW315 to the Minister of Basic Education
15 April 2024 - NW315
Nodada, Mr BB to ask the Minister of Basic Education
(1) What measures has her department put in place to monitor and stop learners being held back and/or coerced to dropout due to fears that their failure would influence the matric pass rate; (2) whether her department has investigated the cause of the rise in school dropout; if not, why not; if so, what (a) are the outcomes of the investigation and (b) consequence management actions have been employed against educators found guilty of holding learners back or coercing them to dropout to artificially improve pass rates?
Reply:
Part (1) There is no such policy or action in the Department to hold children back or force learners out of school for good results.
Part (2): Causes of the rise in school dropout
The question states that there has been an increase in dropping out of school. On the contrary, the DBE’s analysis of trends in the sector indicates that dropout rates (however defined) have been steadily reducing over the years. The graph below shows completion rates for grade 7 (measured using 16-18-year olds), grade 9 (measured using 19-21-year olds), and grade 12 (measured using 22-25-year olds), all of which have clearly been increasing over time. It should be noted that the slight decrease in grade 9 and 12 completion rates in the graph for 2022 are not statistically significant and therefore should not be interpreted as evidence of a declining trend. The clear trend over time is positive.
During the 2020 and 2021 there were concerns about the potential impact of the pandemic-related disruptions on dropping out. But it is now clear that school participation actually improved during the pandemic (with the exception of young children where we saw a slight increase in delayed entry into school). 16-18-year-olds, in particular, had higher attendance rates than before, and the NSC examinations of 2020-2023 achieved all-time records for the numbers of candidates writing, the numbers of NSC passes, the numbers of Bachelor-level passes, and the pass rate.
It is therefore difficult to answer a question about how the department responded to an increase in dropout when in fact there has been no increase in dropping out.
Completion rates for grade 7,9 and 12 over time
Source: DBE analysis of STATS SA General Household Surveys, 2002-2022