ActionSA provincial chairwoman Patricia Kopane has slammed the Free State education department for an alleged higher number of dropouts at public schools. Photo by Joseph Mokoaledi
ACTIONSA in the Free State has questioned an alleged huge number of pupils who enrolled for grade 10 but never reached matric.
According to ActionSA provincial chairwoman Patricia Kopane, 63 453 pupils were enrolled for grade 10 in the province, but only 43 000 managed to write their matric exams.
The pupils are also part of the Basic Education Department's annual report.
"This means that 20 453 pupils didn't make it to matric. This is a serious matter, but the department remains unfazed. We have therefore written to the MEC of Education asking him to tell us about the reasons for the high dropout rate and to inform us of the province's plans to stop the overwhelming dropout rate.
"Education is our most powerful tool in creating a prosperous society and a well-functioning education system is central to overcoming the persistent patterns of inequality in South Africa," she said.
Kopane said it was very worrying that almost 40% of grade 10 pupils in the province failed their exams in 2023, after a staggering 23 671 of the 63 655 pupils failed their exams, a 4% decrease from 2022.
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"We have noted a weak institutional functionality, a poor oversight by the department, as well as poor foundation laid in ECD and primary school phase. This also includes poor parental involvement in school operations and undue influence of unions.
"Weak content knowledge and teaching skills of teachers, wasted learning time and inadequate learning opportunities. It may be what we suspect as 'culling', which is the deliberate holding back of pupils to drive up pass rates," Kopane said.
She believes that improving South Africa's education system requires system-wide reforms, ranging from education administration and bureaucracy to the way individual schools are run, the way children access education and the alignment of the curriculum.
Education spokesman Howard Ndaba labelled ActionSA's comments as political grandstanding.
"The numbers could go down due to pregnancies, deaths and failures. That should not be our problem. It happens naturally. We are working with all stakeholders to ensure that every learner has access to education," he said.
