Education in crisis | Hundreds of thousands drop out before matric

JOHANNESBURG - There's concern about the large number of pupils who drop out of school.

While the latest matric pass rate of 82.9 percent was celebrated, it does not reflect the number of youngsters who didn't make it to matric.

According to the Department of Basic Education, 1.2 million pupils started school in 2012, but only about 716,000 registered for matric exams 11 years later.

This means 490,000 dropped out along the way.

The managing director of Khulisa Social Solutions, Lesley Ann Van Selm, has more on this.