"Madiba's children fail SA's classroom challenge"
19 January 2007
In the article on Page 3 of the Business Day of 29 December 2006, titled
"Madiba's children fail SA's classroom challenge" your journalist Sue Blaine
claims that "two-thirds of the generation that started school in 1995, known as
'Madiba's Children,' dropped out even before they could register to write
matric."
The reporter's conclusion is based on a comparison of the number of learners
enrolled in Grade 1 in 1995 (1 666 980), and those that registered to write the
matric exams twelve years later, in 2006 (554 079). Through a simplistic
calculation, Blaine asserts that two-thirds of 'Madiba's Children' dropped out
of the education system before they even reached matric. If by "drop-out" Ms
Blaine means that this number left the system then this is grossly incorrect as
we explain below.
Firstly, it needs reminding that the 1995 Grade 1 enrolment figure must be
treated with caution. The national information system had not been put in place
by then, and reliance was placed on former education departments for
statistics, which in many cases were estimates. We also know that we had
exceptionally high grade one enrolment figures in those early years due to
under age-learners (some as young as 3 years old) being admitted. It was for
this reason that new entry age and over-age regulations were promulgated to
deal in part with the abnormal grade 1 enrolments.
Secondly, the article does not consider those learners who register for
qualifications that are equivalent to matric. Many learners leave the schooling
system, but remain in the education system through institutions such as Further
Education and Training (FET) and Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET)
Colleges, or enter into structured learnership programmes. Some 75 000 learners
are registered for the N1 to N3 courses in FET Colleges (equivalent to Grades
10 - 12), while about 5 000 16 to 18 year old learners were in ABET Colleges in
2006. Many more were in learnership programmes, at private Colleges, or in
other training programmes.
Thirdly, that the calculations do not account for the number of repeaters in
the schooling system. Repetition rates were particularly high in the earlier
grades in the 1990s owing to the large number of under-aged children who were
enrolled in the system. If one takes an average repetition rate of 10% in each
grade (as the Department's figures suggest), it is to be expected that a large
percentage of the 1995 cohort would take longer than 12 years to reach matric.
The fact that they had not reached matric by 2006 does not mean they have
dropped out of school.
The Department does not doubt the existence of a dropout phenomenon. What it
questions are the high dropout figures quoted by the media that are arrived at
through inaccurate methods. Ms Blaine is referring to completion rates, and
perhaps inadvertently uses the term drop-out.
It has been established through various sources that the participation rate
of 7-15 year olds in South African schools is 98,7% and that for secondary
school age appropriate learners is around 88%. We have established that the
dropout from 2003, when 'Madiba's children' would have been in grade 9, to
2006, is in fact 70 000 learners, which is less than 10% of the total number
registered.
We trust that this clarification will give your readers correct information
on the education system. In order to provide an authoritative statement, the
Minister of Education is in the process of convening a high-level Ministerial
Committee to look into the "numbers," including completion rates, repetition
rates and drop-outs. It is to be hoped that their voice will quieten down some
of the noise on this matter.
Issued by: Department of Education
19 January 2007
