Experts call for radical education reform in SA

422 000 pupils never reached matric: pass rate celebrations challenged

- YOSHINI PERUMAL

EDUCATIONAL experts are calling for urgent reforms on mental health support, curriculum overhaul and teacher training to address the multifaceted challenges contributing to pupils dropping out of school, including mental health issues and family dynamics.

Professor Labby Ramrathan said the statistics provided by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube — which indicated that 422 000 pupils who enrolled in Grade 1 in 2014 and did not complete Grade 12 in 2025 — was of great concern.

“The statistics give a sense of the health of the school education system. However, the reality is that, for various reasons, school dropout occurs. Those that drop out from school have very little hope of improving the quality of their lives and, as such, sustains the level of poverty resulting in them continuing to be a state dependent group.

“Dropout is not only from the perspective of the pupil. Our basic education system continues to perpetuate poor schooling experiences with extremely high class sizes where very little learning can take place. Their foundations are very weak and as such they cannot cope with higher levels of study,” he added.

Ramrathan said while the number of pupils who received Bachelor's pass grades was high, many may not be considered for public university admissions because of them not being able to achieve a pass grade required for selection.

“The high number of Bachelor's grade passes does not necessarily reflect the quality of school education.

“As widely suggested, attention needs to be given to foundation and intermediate phase schooling. More importantly, the overloaded curriculum needs serious changes to focus more on the various literacy developments, including communication literacy, digital literacy, financial literacy and science literacy,” added Ramrathan.