South Africa is once again debating the 30% matric pass mark after Parliament rejected Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane’s motion to scrap it. The public reaction was immediate and fierce, with many arguing that raising the bar would push pupils to work harder and improve the quality of our education system. But as the debate continues, I keep thinking: Are we fixing the right thing?
Because the problem is not simply the pass mark. The real issue is the structure of the system itself, and who it was built for. I say this not from a distance, but from lived experience.
For most of my life, I was considered one of the “average” academic pupils. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve realised something important: I am actually not the kind of pupil this system was built for. Do you know Sheldon Cooper from theYoung SheldonTV show, the child genius who absorbs information at lightning speed and naturally thrives in structured, academic environments?
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The system was built for Sheldons, not people like me, and not the millions of South African children who fall somewhere in the middle. Sheldons are the rare, hyper-analytical, academically wired pupils who thrive under structured, text-heavy, exam-driven schooling. I am not a Sheldon. I simply learned how to survive the system.
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