Making the South African 12th Grade Cut

One of the biggest days each year in South Africa is the day the results of the annual matric examinations are released. It is an exit exam with profound implications for the students and the country.

On that day the destinies of some 600,000 students are made public, if not permanent; because the results largely determine the segment of society within which one will be given access: college, blue-collar work, menial jobs. Newspapers print the thousands of individual results; naming honorees as well as those failing to make the cut.

In a familiar refrain, officials there, while disappointed at a lower passing rate than in past years, are encouraged by numbers that reflect more students attempting to tale the test than before; a sign of more students attempting to complete their education.