Calling people who get 30% in matric ‘differently talented’ is not on – Jonathan Jansen
Professor Jonathan Jansen said in any other country, Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, would be fired if she said people who obtain 30% are “differently talented”.
On Monday, 12 January 2025, the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, announced that South Africa’s official matric pass rate for the class of 2025 was 88%.
This represented an improvement over the 87.3% pass rate achieved the previous year, marking the highest pass rate the country has ever seen.
Many prominent people, including Mmusi Maimane, leader of Build One South Africa (BOSA), questioned the value of the results.
BOSA argued that the Department of Basic Education inflates the matric pass rate by making pass marks unjustifiably low.
“Current standards convey to learners that achieving 30% and 40% is acceptable,” BOSA spokesperson Roger Solomons said.
“Crucially, the majority of students who take crucial matric subjects pass with less than 50%.”
Gwarube took aim at critics in his matric results announcement, saying, “we must put this stubborn myth to rest that 30% is the matric pass mark”.
“I call upon elected leaders, those inside this house and outside of this house, to refrain from populism,” she said.
She said the dangers of criticising the 30% pass mark are that it discourages learners, especially those who take different paths.
“Not every learner who attends a school intends to obtain a university degree. Some intend to obtain skills in the world of work, and others do different things,” she said.
“When we use slogans, we really discourage learners who are differently talented in the system.”
She explained that a National Senior Certificate (NSC) is earned by meeting a minimum requirement across a full subject package.
“There are higher thresholds in key subjects with different pass types that open different pathways after school.”
“In turn, learners achieve the right marks in the right subjects in the NSC exams to gain entry into a preferred program at a higher education level.”
“Slogans and percentages alone will not improve learner outcomes.”
Professor Jonathan Jansen questions the Minister’s comments
Professor Jonathan Jansen said in any other country, Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, would be fired if she said people who obtain 30% are “differently talented”.
He made this comment during an interview with Newzday Africa, commenting on the recently released matric pass rate of 88%.
He described the 88% national matric pass rate as meaningless, saying the constant increase in the matric results has defied statistical and political gravity.
Jansen has worked in the South African high school environment for the past two years, and he argues that the matric results do not reflect the truth.
“I know the truth. The truth is not what we heard from the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube,” Jansen said.
He said the truth is that many of the kids which start school never make it to grade 12 and write their matric exams.
The low requirement to pass matric, which includes a 30% pass rate in many cases, has been a particularly contentious point.
Jansen said that the pass requirement for the South African National Senior Certificate (NSC) is still low, and leaves little to celebrate.
“It’s time for South Africans to wake up. The minister made a very weak attempt to explain away 30%,” he said.
“In any other country, a minister would be fired if she said people who obtain 30% are ‘differently talented’. This is not on.”
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Goodness.
If we were talking about people studying nuclear physics, I could handle calling people who obtained 30% “differently talented”.
We are sadly talking about people who do not have the ability to read and write… people who look at basic arithmetic as if they were hieroglyphics.
It never ceases to amaze me how things that are so easily achieved in other countries are viewed by our government as being such an incredible feat to achieve. Can you imagine these people in a meeting (because you just know how they love committees and meetings…) discussing how 30% or 40% is okay?
What we may be failing to consider is that many of our government officials themselves may have only achieved 20 or 30% back in the day. After all, they are not hired based on merit or ability. From this vantage point, I guess 30 to 40% would be an aspirational goal.
Perhaps the solution to this problem is simpler than it may appear.
Try this – maybe it works… Enforce a rule for all government officials – they may only make use of public education for their children and the school will be picked on a random basis (otherwise you know what will happen… the whole education budget will filter to just 20 schools). To fix a large problem, the same should apply as far as healthcare and security needs. I believe that this may be enough incentive to start fixing things.