Nkosikhulule Nyembezi
Cape Town - Last week just under a million children in South Africa received their National Senior Certificate results; this week, those who do not yet have a firm plan for their tertiary education or post-school life are working out what to do next.
Results are never good news for everyone, even as the matric class of 2022 achieved an 80.1% pass rate, up from 76.4% the year before. We should not ignore disappointments even as the number of university entry passes has increased – an improvement of 8.9%.
But the success of schools and learners in the face of new and complex schooling and exam challenges deserves applause, considering that Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has underlined noteworthy achievements.
First, the National Senior Certificate pass rate has been consistently increasing since it reached 60% in 2009. Second, 387 000 learners from no-fee schools passed, which she said was a 9% improvement from the previous year.
No matter the circumstances, matric results day can often be anxious for all involved. Learners, their loved ones and their teachers have been waiting to see the outcome of months of intense study and hard work and what the contents of those envelopes mean for their futures.
But this year, results day was surrounded by even more tension and controversy as we waited to see how the use of blended learning in the schooling system would affect results in public and private schools.
The government’s plans to rectify the problems exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and rolling electricity blackouts fell drastically short in numerous townships and villages.
Some learners from wealthy families and affluent areas experienced almost another full year of consistent, supported home learning with ample resources, calm home environments and highly educated parents with the time and money to invest in their children’s learning.
For others, like those in communities where some of my close friends and relatives live, young people faced the severe impacts of financial instability, unemployment and poverty.
Families and children were left alone to grapple with the lack of resources.
With the government’s promise of laptops for deprived children mostly undelivered or misused, I know of many households where multiple siblings had to learn from one mobile phone, with minimal data. Let alone poor internet connectivity that was exacerbated by power outages and infrastructure vandalism.
With parents torn between migrating between towns in search of work and childcare, and free school meals abandoned in most parts of some provinces, it is hardly surprising that the matric class of 2022 results point to a vast attainment gap that is only getting worse.
Once again, Independent Examinations Board matric candidates have the highest percentage of top grades this year, with a 98.42% pass rate. The pass rate is slightly higher than last year’s 98.39%. Of those, 89.32% achieved a university entry pass.
My family members paying for private education say independent schools “have a lot to answer for”.
It stuck in my mind then because it was rare to hear the viewpoint so badly expressed that when you pay for a private school, you are buying grades, and if those grades do not materialise, the school has ripped you off.
What has become apparent since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic is that parents investing in private education can demonstrably feel pretty satisfied with their return: 80% of independently educated learners I know of got As or multiple distinctions, set against just over 46% at state schools. Yes, I am referring to learners I know intimately, and they are many in these years of digital connectivity.
In the scramble to explain why affluent children should outperform their peers to such a degree, I have heard the following hypotheses: they work harder; their teachers are better; poorer learners did not have laptops, computer laboratories, libraries or quiet spaces to work in; there was less face-to-face online teaching in state schools.
But logically, leaving all my prejudices and personal experience of private education aside, when grade difference is running with an unacceptably wide gap in private and public schools, isn’t the explanation much simpler?
Even though they are magic, most private school teachers are still human and feel pressure from parents about their children’s grades. Very few teachers in less-affluent public schools feel the same force, where parents are less involved in their children’s educational activities.
The much less comfortable conclusion is that underneath what looks like mishaps is a formula of strategic insincerity in the face of disjointed investment in the public schooling system.
There is no natural brake on the government’s rhetoric and our society’s indifference towards improving the teaching and learning environment for all children, irrespective of their municipal boundaries.
With the competition for universities so intense this year, it is hard to envisage a future that does not see these disparities continuing to transfer into higher education as the most competitive courses become even more dominated by those from wealthy backgrounds.
This status quo renders true social mobility nothing but a pipe dream for millions of high school learners who are left behind each year when they receive examination results. The government administration leadership seems woefully ill-equipped to address this fundamentally and urgently.
I am worried about what these results mean for the young people still recovering from the coronavirus chaos and the perennial crisis in our education system.
But even more worrying is what our children’s education will look like in the coming months and years. Young people will no doubt face an ever-more-unfair playing field.
As responsible citizens, we are right to worry about the lost learning of the generation coming of age post the pandemic and polarised nation overcome by social ills; we should be much more worried about this group coming of age as voters.
They have been treated as not quite legitimate long enough, not quite important enough to deserve detailed planning and substantial investment to improve their literacy and numeracy skills.
A few parents of children attending public schools have, over the years, been able to make up the shortfall with all they have, including paying for extra tuition and career guidance.
But that still leaves a large group whose grievances we cannot minimise and ignore forever.
Nyembezi is a researcher, policy analyst and human rights activist
Cape Times