The Star reports that the National Teachers' Union (Natu) has questioned the ingenuity of progressing learners to matric if the majority of them were barred from writing the full final exam.  

Out of 128,634 learners who failed Grade 11 in 2017 and were pushed to matric last year, only 33,412 sat for all their subjects.  Of these, some 20,122 passed and 2,676 obtained passes that allowed them to enrol at traditional universities.  A whopping 95,222 who progressed to matric did not sit for all their subjects, and they were unaccounted for in the national 78.2% pass rate.  Allen Thompson, deputy president of Natu, said the progression policy demoralised teachers because they spent the entire year on matriculants who were diverted from the exams.  He called for the scrapping of the policy that the Department of Basic Education started implementing in 2015.  The SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) decried what it called the insufficient support provided by authorities.  “As a union we lament the fact that there is evidently inadequate support provided to progressed learners and teachers,” general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said.

• Read the original report by Bongani Nkosi in full at The Star

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