Kimberley - The real matric pass rate in the Northern Cape is, according to the DA, only 32.7 percent if the dropout figures from Grade 10 are included.
The party explained on Tuesday that in 2015 there were 20 180 pupils in the Northern Cape in Grade 10.
Last year, a total of 8 735 pupils in Grade 12 wrote the National Senior Certificate examinations in the Province, of which 6 607 passed.
Therefore, according to the party, the real pass rate was only 32.7 percent and not the official pass rate of 75.6 percent quoted by the Department of Education.
Nationally, the DA has given the real matric pass rate at 37.3 percent.
“The national situation has worsened from last year’s real pass rate of 40.2 percent - suggesting that our schooling system is not a ‘system on the rise’ as claimed,” it added.
The party called on Education Minister Angie Motshekga to explain why “she consistently refuses to institute an investigation into culling”.
“More than half of Grade 10s do not pass their final matric exams, making it less likely that they will be able to further their education or find a job,” the DA stated.
Northern Cape Department of Education spokesperson, Geoffrey van der Merwe, accused the DA of “deliberately trying to create confusion over the 2017 NSC examinations results”.
“The NSC examination results are not calculated over a certain period or specific phase of schooling, but determined and calculated based on the specific number of pupils who enrolled for Grade 12 in a specific year, in this case for the academic year 2017.”
Van der Merwe added that the assumptions the party was making, with references to drop-out pupils from Grade 10 to 12, was immaterial without taking into consideration the movement and tracking of pupils.
“Our pass rate for the 2017 NSC examinations is 75.6 percent, which includes our progressed pupils,” he stated.