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High matric pass rate hides serious youth challenges
The Mercury
|January 28, 2026
MANY congratulations to the class of 2025.
However, I must repeat what I have said before. Every year we see more and more learners getting 10, 9, 8, 7 distinctions, etc. It's absolutely amazing and one has to ask, is the standard a bit too low for these bright kids?
Then we look at the other end of the scale, and we see one can get a pass with a few subjects in the 30s and a few in the forties? Is that a pass? I have to ask.
In my and my husband’: day, if one got one or two A’, you were lauded as brilliant. That would be poor in today’s matric pass. And yet were we not as clever? Or did we not work half as hard? I'm not sure of the answer.
This story is from the January 28, 2026 edition of The Mercury.
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