Late Night Talk

Spokesperson for the Department of Education, Elijah Mhlanga says it's not productive to compare public and private schools.

This follows the release of the matric results for the Independent Examinations Board (IEB), with a pass rate of over 98%.

Education Minister Angie Motshekga will release the pass rate for the national senior certificate later on Thursday and the results will be available to the public on Friday morning.

Mhlanga says the two systems are not comparable in terms of resources and capacity.

Private schools can select who they want to be in their schools on the basis of performance and affordability, but in the public system we accept everyone.

— Elijah Mhlanga, Education Department spokesperson

We can't select, we need to follow what the constitution says that all children of schoolgoing age should be in school and we support each one of them.

— Elijah Mhlanga, Education Department spokesperson

There are about 10 000 children who write IEB matric exams and we have about 800 000... So we should at some point consider not comparing the two because they are just two worlds that are difficult to really even put side by side.

— Elijah Mhlanga, Education Department spokesperson

Mhlanga says the Education Department is hoping for an improvement in the national senior certificate pass rate and has worked hard for it.

To hear the rest of the conversation with Elijah Mhlanga, listen below: