South Africa School Grades Improve as Education Spending Climbs
- Pass rate for final-year students rises to 72.5 percent
- Poor educational standards hamper growth, fuel unemployment
A girls walks to her classroom at the Qunu Junior Secondary School, a village outside the town of Mthatha, South Africa.
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South Africa’s national school pass rate rose for the first time in three years as the government boosted spending on education and teachers got to grips with a new curriculum.
The proportion of successful final-year students at state schools increased to 72.5 percent last year from 70.7 percent in 2015, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Wednesday. More than 828,000 pupils wrote the examinations, the most yet.