The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has congratulated the matric class of 2017 for ensuring that the matric pass rate continued on a steady rise.
Sadtu has however expressed concern that the results still favour learners who attend well-resourced schools.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga revealed that the overall 2017 Matric pass rate has gone up to 75.1%.
This is a 2.6% increase from the 72.5% achieved by the 2016 class.
She made the announcement in Auckland Park, Johannesburg on Thursday night.
Sadtu General Secretary Mugwena Maluleke says, “Sadtu congratulates the class of 2017, and we’re happy that we’ve been able to register a steady improvement in terms of the overall pass mark. But also we’re still registering our concern that the results are still favouring those schools that are more resourced.”
“Therefore, it’s important that our public education system looks at improving the infrastructure and resourcing our public schools as well as our township schools to be at the same level in terms of the class sizes, in terms of the number of teachers for our schools,” explains Maluleke.
