Matric 2014, Good or Bad?

Matric 2014, Good or Bad?
By Modibe J Modiba
Good day

Before I go any further I'd like to congratulate all those matriculants who due to their endless efforts and sleepless nights have now reaped the benefits of what they've sowed for the past years and to those who didn't, it's not the end of the world. A wise person once said "dreams delayed are not dreams denied", so hang in there.

 As the 2014 Matric results came flocking in I came across a very sad, worrying, terrifying but yet informative tweet by Nic Spaull (@NicSpaull) which stated, "Of 100 students that started school in 2003 (Gr1), only 48 wrote matric in 2014, 36 passed, & 14 qualified to go to university".

This literally means that, out of all the kids who started school in 2003(grade 1) only 48%(48 wrote matric) in their desired year (2014) and those that wrote in 2014 only 75%( 36 passed) and 38% of the 75% (14 qualified for university ). This in my view is very disturbing as I think about the many others or let me say the 52% of learners who never wrote Matric in 2014 and dropped out along the way. What happens to these kids?

Now to spice things up a little more let's do a bit of some mathematical literacy, now basically we have 52% of learners who never made it to Matric in 2014 PLUS the 25% of those who failed Matric in 2014 which gives us 77% of kids who've either been failed by the system, didn't take their studies seriously or dropped out of school along the way for various other issues.

What worries me is that only 14(38%) of the 2014 Matriculants actually qualify for university studies and out of the 14(38%) how many will eventually find the means necessary to go to university and how many of them will eventually graduate from university judging by the high dropout rate of students in university? And those that DO graduate from university how many will actually find employment judging by the HIGH number of graduates in the country who are without jobs and sitting at home?

This to me looks more like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode or am I just exaggerating things? Should South Africans be worried? I believe if nothing is done to change this worrying trend, our government in the near future will have to invest more on adult education and will that  even be a REAL solution to this problem or does our education system need a major radical revamp as many worried citizens feel? Should the blame only be pointed at the education system or the learners?

I'd love to hear your views !