Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has denied that her department had a policy to hold back or force pupils out of school due to fears that their failure would influence the matric pass rate.
Motshekga also dismissed a suggestion that the dropout rate was on the increase.
“There is no such policy or action in the department to hold children back or force learners out of school for good results,” she said, responding to a parliamentary question from DA MP Baxolile Nodada.
Nodada had enquired about measures the department had 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.
Motshekga said contrary to the assertion that there was an increase in pupils dropping out of school, the Department of Education Department’s analysis indicated that dropout rates had been steadily reducing over the years.
“The 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,” she said.
Nodada had written to the minister asking whether her department had investigated the cause of the rise in school dropout.
Motshekga said during 2020 and 2021 there were concerns about the potential impact of the pandemic-related disruptions on drop out rates.
“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.”
She also said that pupils aged between 16 and 18, in particular, had higher attendance rates than before.
The National Senior Certificate (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,” Motshekga added.