Sums don't add up for matrics

The matric Class of 2025 will join millions of youth already searching for work, facing the same walls others have hit for years.

- Mandla Mthembu

As thousands of young people receive their matric results, families beam with pride. There are smiles, hugs and celebrations. But once the excitement settles, a harder question arrives: what future are these young people walking into?

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube this week announced that the Class of 2025 had achieved an 88% pass rate the highest in South Africa's history. Ululation and song greeted the news, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, which topped the provincial charts at 90.66%. On the surface, this looks like triumph. Scratch beneath the record figure, though, and the arithmetic tells a sobering story.

The minister's 88% is calculated on the department of basic education's full-time pupils. But although the number of pupils who wrote the exams was the highest yet just over 900 000 - only 745 000 were full-time pupils. Of these, 656 000 acquired the National Senior Certificate, which drops the pass rate to about 80%.

By the minister's maths, nearly nine in 10 succeeded. By the country's maths, nearly one in three did not.