The majority of matriculants are unemployable, trade union Solidarity said on Tuesday.
“School in effect does not prepare pupils, even those who pass, for the labour market,” Solidarity added in a statement.
Only four out of every ten matriculants who enter the labour force after matric are expected to find employment - the rest will probably become part of the grim unemployment statistics of South Africa.
Releasing the Solidarity Research Institute's (SRI's) annual report on the prospects for 2010's matriculants, it was expected that 2011 - like the previous two years - was likely to be a difficult year for South African employees and job seekers, the trade union noted.
“Job opportunities will continue to be limited.”
“Matriculants who hope to enter the labour market immediately will be confronted with this reality and will probably have to start at the bottom of the career ladder,” explained Dr Dirk Hermann, the deputy general secretary of Solidarity.
According to Hermann, a matric certificate alone will not offer job seekers a real advantage.
“The current state of the labour market will already prove challenging for this year's matriculants. “
What made matters worse was that a school education did not equip school leavers adequately for the labour market.
“What is more, the pass rate of subjects like mathematics, accounting and physical sciences that contribute to employability is extremely poor.”
“Although the pass rate of home language subjects and life orientation is very good, these types of subjects do not really equip pupils with marketable skills.”
The SRI research shows that the majority of matriculants did not become skilled enough in critical subjects like mathematics in school.
Of the more than 552 000 matrics who wrote the matric exam in 2009, only 60.6% passed.
Only 24.2% (133 789) of the entire group passed mathematics with a mark of 30% or higher.
Only 9.6% of matriculants (52 866), passed mathematics with a mark of 50% or higher, while a mere 1.6% obtained a distinction in this subject.
“If these percentages are compared with the total number of pupils who started their school education in 1998 and who should have matriculated in 2009, the picture looks even more grim,” Hermann said.
Of the 1.44 million pupils who started school 12 years ago, only 0.6% eventually obtained a distinction in mathematics in 2009.
“It is likely that similar figures will apply in the case of 2010's matriculants, which does not bode well for the school leavers who will receive their results this week,” Hermann explained.
The lowest simple average pass mark that a matriculant could have was 30%, which raised several questions about the ultimate value of a matric certificate.
“You do an 18-year-old an injustice by telling him he is ready for further study or skilled work on the basis of a cut-off mark of 30%.”
“Matriculants gets a pat on the pack for making the Department of Education's statistics look good through their participation in a system of mediocrity, while the 12 years they spent in school did not prepare them for a career,” Hermann added.
Further training offered the best possible chance to avoid unemployment.
Hermann said studies showed that employees with a tertiary qualification were the least affected by the past labour recession.
“Tertiary qualifications offer employees a degree of protection and job security in difficult times.”
“Although having a matric certificate is better than having no qualification whatsoever, it does not guarantee job security.”
Matriculants who intended to obtain a tertiary qualification were on the right track.
“Any tertiary qualification reduces a person's chances of being unemployed.”
“Labour market data of 2007 clearly show that a university degree generally carries more weight than a diploma or other tertiary qualification.”
To increase one's chances of job security, careers where there were skills shortages were the ideal option.
“Qualifications in the medical, engineering, information technology, financial and technical fields are particularly sought after as a result of skills shortages,” Hermann said.
The Department of Basic Education will release matric results on Thursday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Independent Examinations Board (IEB), which is an independent assessment agency, said that more than 98% of candidates had passed its National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination.
In 2010, only 8 285 pupils from just 172 schools wrote the IEB National Senior Certificate exam. - I-Net Bridge