'50% pass mark should be reached incrementally, do it next year and you'll just double the failure rate'

John Maytham talks to Professor Jonathan Jansen on The Afternoon Drive.

Our new Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, has told Parliament there are no immediate plans to scrap the current 30% pass mark for subjects at Grade 12 level.

She was responding to a written parliamentary question from Mmusi Maimane's Build One SA (Bosa), which has made a call for the pass mark to be raised to 50%.

John Maytham gets some input from well-known educationist Jonathan Jansen, Professor of Education at the University of Stellenbosch.

RELATED: Bosa urges Education Minister to raise minimum pass mark from 30% to 50%

While Professor Jansen believes that 50% should indeed be the pass rate figure, he says this is a goal that can only be reached incrementally, and that once certain measures are put in place to fix our education system.

"I think that should be the goal, as we have at universities - you've got to get 50% to pass, period. And I think we should also have that goal for the school system."

Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Educationist

Jansen sums up the dilemma faced in South Africa as one you cannot solve with an assessment standard that is an output standard, or what you didn't correct with the input standards.

His long-stated proposal is to increase the pass rate by 5% every year.

"You can push it up to 50% for all subjects (which is the goal) next year, and I can guarantee you, you'll double the failure rate."

"That is because the system has to do two things at the same time - set the goal of 50%, and then say 'now, how do we get there?'.

Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Educationist

Jansen goes on to outline the major challenges that have to be addressed, which include the quality of teachers, materials, and also the poor conditions many teachers have to work under.

To hear more from Jansen, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article