EWN reports that according to the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) all the praise around the improvement in the matric results was a celebration of mediocrity.  

The union federation said this was because the country’s education system, both in content and quality, was non-existent, lacked skills development and relevance and added no value to the country’s economy.  The matric pass rate improved by 3.1% to 78.2%, however, the federation argued that this was misleading as it did not take into account the number of learners who dropped out of school since registering for grade one.  Saftu’s provincial secretary Moses Mautsoe said the union would not celebrate the achievements of matric until the government took education seriously.

• Read the original in full of this report by Michael Pedro at EWN

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