What 2020 holds for education and our future leaders

Another year has come and gone and all the matrics are able to breathe a sigh of relief after the official matric examination results hit the shelves. 2019 was indeed a challenging year, but the best in 25 years for our matric pass rate which came to a whopping 81.3%! Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, commented that 787 717 candidates took part in the Senior Certificate examinations across South Africa and the pass rate improved by 3.1% from 2018.

This is, of course, fantastic news for the education landscape for the years to come. Motshekga confirmed that the very positive pastorate is thanks to an improvement in the quality of important subjects, as well as the introduction of specialised subjects such as agricultural studies in selected schools. This shows a massive shift in the direction of introducing practical subjects especially when it comes to entrepreneurs and the shift in the job market of applying practical skills.

According to Business Tech, the below achievements were also noted by the DBE:

• Significant improvement in performance in 7 of the 11 Gateway subjects (Accounting, Agricultural Sciences, Business Studies, Geography, History, Mathematical Literacy and Physical Sciences).
• Improvement in the number of learners qualifying for admission to bachelor studies from 172,043 to 186,058 (3.3% improvement).
• Improvement in the number of learners qualifying for admission to diploma studies from 141,700 to 144,672 (1.1% improvement).
• The number of quintile 1 to 3 schools performing at an overall pass percentage of 80% and above increased from 1 961 in 2018 to 2 484 in 2019. This represents 50% of the total number of quintile 1, 2 and 3 schools countrywide.
• Improvement in the overall pass percentages of 8 of the 9 provinces.
•  96,976 of the admission to bachelors studies come from quintiles 1, 2 and 3 as compared to 78 037 that are coming from quintiles 4 and 5.
• All the 75 districts are performing at 60% and above with 45 of the districts (compared to 34 in 2018) performing at 80% and above.

When we look at the above statistics and numbers, 2020 looks exceptionally promising for the education landscape in South Africa. Improvement in numbers is clearly an improvement in the quality of teachers and personal development. President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged learners to embrace their studies as this will increase their chances of pursuing their career goals and dreams. The journey starts now! Congratulations to the pioneers of 2019!