Throwing down gauntlet to education officials

By Lihle Mtshali

My nephew, who is in matric this year, wants to study graphic design next year. This week he looked in on a top design school's head office in an up-market Jozi suburb. 

He was told that in order to be admitted he just needed to get 55% for maths literacy.

I was floored when my sister, Lindile, told me this. Fifty-five percent to get into a tertiary institution and they're not even asking for real maths? Somebody had to be pulling my leg. But Lindile said this was not unusual: most universities were asking for that now.

When I was in school, which may or may not have been close to two decades ago, you had to strive for a whole lot more than 55% if you hoped to get into even a technikon.

What made me really take note was that I learnt about the requirement on the day I went to my daughter's school to collect her second-term report card. You see, they don't simply just give the child the report to take home, because we all know where some of those reports end up: you have to go to the school and chat to the teachers about your child's progress.

I looked at Thando's report with all her As and Bs, thought about what my sister had told me and came to the conclusion that the South African government has short-changed our children.

That 55% would be a fail here, because a grade of 69% or lower is an F, and 80% to 84% is a B. In Mzansi that's an A.

The pass mark here is 70%, which is a C. There is no D or E. Meanwhile, Mzansi children are told that 40% is good enough.

Click HERE to read the full story at Times Live.