In the week that South Africa\u2019s matric results were released, international news magazine, The Economist, has declared the country\u2019s schools as among the most inept in the world.<\/p>\n
“South Africa has one of the world\u2019s worst education systems,” the London-based publication reported on its online platform on Friday.<\/p>\n
The publication reported that South Africa ranked 75th out of 76, in a ranking table of education systems drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2015.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, reported the publication, in November, a study into trends in international mathematics and science placed South Africa at or near the bottom of a variety of categories – even though its scoring was an improvement from 2011.<\/p>\n
The test is written by 580 000 students in 57 countries to determine these results.<\/p>\n
South Africa’s school results were worse than even poorer countries in other parts of Africa.<\/p>\n
“A shocking 27% of pupils who have attended school for six years cannot read, compared with 4% in Tanzania and 19% in Zimbabwe,” cited The Economist.<\/p>\n
Some of these problems could be attributed to the inequality of resources during apartheid-era Bantu Education, as well as a lack of sufficient teacher training in certain subjects, suggested the publication.<\/p>\n
It also laid the blame on the SA Democratic Teachers Union, saying that the report published by academic John Volmink in May 2016, indicated that “widespread” corruption and abuse was occurring.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the lack of government response could be attributed to the fact that “all six of the senior civil servants running education are Sadtu members”, claimed the international news source.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, South Africa\u2019s basic education department reported a matriculation pass rate – including progressed students – of 72.5%.<\/p>\n