Parliament on Tuesday rejected a motion to scrap the longstanding 30% matric pass threshold, a proposal that had drawn rare cross‑party attention and exposed deep divisions over the future of SA’s education system.
The initiative, tabled by Build One South Africa MP Mmusi Maimane, sought to replace the minimum pass mark with a higher standard of 50%, arguing that the current benchmark entrenches mediocrity and limits opportunities for pupils entering a competitive labour market.
The motion was defeated by 190 votes against, 87 in favour, with the ANC and DA voting to retain the present framework. Smaller parties, including the EFF, IFP and MK supported Maimane’s proposal.
The PAC, UAT and UDM did not attend the sitting and therefore did not participate in the vote.
Speaking after the vote, Maimane told Business Day: “Thirty percent is no different to Bantu education. The ANC and the DA would prefer our young people to do so. We are falling behind global benchmarking.”
“To defend this policy is to ensure that our young people are qualified for unemployment.”
To defend this policy is to ensure that our young people are qualified for unemployment
— Mmusi Maimane, Build One South Africa
The debate leading up to the vote clarified that the 30% mark, often cited in public discourse, does not represent the overall pass mark of the National Senior Certificate.
Officials from the department of basic education told MPs that learners must achieve 40% in a home language, 40% in two other subjects and 30% in three additional subjects, with higher thresholds required for bachelor’s and diploma passes. They stressed that “to claim that learners pass matric with 30% was not supported by evidence and was a distortion of how the NSC works”.
In a mini‑plenary ahead of the vote, ANC MP Tebogo Letsie, chairperson of the portfolio committee on education, emphasised that improving the education system was a collective responsibility.
He warned that public confidence could not be restored without honesty about performance. “Let it be stated unambiguously that 30% is not the pass mark of our curriculum. There are established subject‑specific thresholds and promotional criteria that must be satisfied. And an aggregate of 30% falls far short of these standards,” he said.
Letsie enumerated the requirements for a bachelor’s pass and stressed that the NSC was benchmarked against international standards.
However, MK MP Sihle Ngubane contradicted Letsie, arguing that the pass rate of some subjects was 30% and 40% for others. He said this low threshold compromises the standard of South African education and global competitiveness. South Africa chooses not to compete in global maths and science assessments, thereby passing up an opportunity to measure against the world’s best, Ngubane added.
Basic education minsiter Siviwe Gwarube explained that to pass the NSC a learner must meet a three‑tier set of requirements: 40% in a home language, 40% in two further subjects and 30% in three additional subjects. She stressed that higher thresholds apply for bachelor and diploma passes, and that the NSC was internationally aligned as a multi‑subject qualification system.
“Of the learners who wrote the NSC last year, only 189 passed with this minimum subject combination. To claim that learners pass matric with 30% is not supported by evidence and is a distortion of how NSC works,” Gwarube said.
EFF MP Mandla Shikwambana said the threshold was inadequate for a generation competing in a knowledge‑based economy. He insisted that the minimum must be raised to reflect the demands of modern society.
ANC MPs cautioned that raising the threshold to 50% across all subjects without addressing early childhood education and resource disparities “would not suddenly produce better outcomes”. They argued that reforms must be phased and supported by investment in teacher training and infrastructure.
Business Day
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