Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga has announced that the matric pass rate for the class of 2019 is 81.3%.

The “real” matric pass rate – the number of learners who started grade 10 two years ago and passed their matric exams in 2019 – is, however, much lower.

1,052,080 learners enrolled in grade 10 in 2017, while only 504,303 of these learners wrote their matric exams last year.

This means that only 48% of grade 10 learners wrote the matric exams, and only 39% of these learners passed matric.

The real matric pass rate can therefore be seen as 39% instead of the 81%, which was celebrated by the education minister.

Dropping out

Equal Education has previously stated that “learning backlogs that develop and deepen in the early years of schooling” are a major contributor to learners dropping out.

“Keeping learners in school and ensuring that they leave school with a meaningful qualification remains one of the key challenges in South Africa’s public education system,” it said.

“Particularly concerning is that approximately 12% of young people still do not even complete grade 9.”

It is for this reason that Equal Education said the “throughput rate” of learners to matric must be considered alongside the matric pass rate.

Real pass rate

The table below details the “real” matric pass rate, taking learner dropouts from those who made it into grade 10 in 2017 and would have written their matric exams in 2019 into account.