JONATHAN JANSEN | Dress-up to cover up potential racial embarrassment is an insult to black talent

We knew what to expect on Monday, January 12 2026, at 6pm. An extravagant, even boastful, account of the superb grade 12 National Senior Certificate (‘matric’) results. Government glows in the national spotlight and the minister claims, without empirical foundation, that we now have “a far more stable system”.

We seldom ask, why? Why this extraordinary, flashy display of the results of one grade out of 12 with its outrageous claims? No government department function ― other than perhaps finance and the budget speech ― puts so much hype and extravaganza on display. It felt like a Pentecostal meeting with everyone speaking in tongues, because as one who has studied school systems all my life, I certainly did not understand the gibberish.

For 30 years I have been pondering not the what or how questions, but the why behind the spectacle. There is, I concluded, a political psychology that drives this political theatre, leading every minister of education to do such a meaningless annual dance. Education, it turns out, is the public litmus test of how well the black government is doing even if everything else falls apart.

Hear me out.

We forget that it was education that almost scuttled the negotiations for a democratic South Africa, FW de Klerk once told me. Underlying the racial angst of conservative white South Africans was a simple question: can we trust a black government with our children’s education? What that meant is that Nelson Mandela’s first government made serious compromises that basically kept white privilege and black disadvantage intact to this day. How?

First, it did not set a cap on the extent to which white schools could levy school fees. The results were predictable ― inequality would be ingrained. Second, it allowed white schools to decide on admissions and again, racial and class privilege was protected. As one of the post-1994 ministers of education told me, we did not want whites to leave the public school system.

What was the unspoken transaction between the black government and a wary white public? Put differently, what would the sitting government have to prove on an annual basis? That the standards of the public examination were not falling. More than that, that the matric results were defying the laws of gravity by moving constantly upwards. Yes, a mere 0.7% increase, but the best ever preened the minister on national television.

There is a reason behind the upbeat presentation even when only 34% of candidates wrote mathematics (the rest doing the ridiculously easy mathematical literacy) and wait for it, there was a drop of 5% (69-64) even in this diminished group. So, too, a decline in accountancy, the other subject disadvantaged schools drop like hot potatoes.

What was really astonishing, as the minister moved through her speech like a bullet train, was her claim that “integrity is holding firm”. My word. We just had a major, embarrassing leak in the security system for the exams.

There is a reason to cover this up. If you want to see the black government in panic mode, watch the (over)reaction when exam results leak as recently discovered for three major subjects (maths, physical sciences, English home language). This could seriously dent confidence in the capacity of the new regime to run a complex examination system.

There are enough super-smart black pupils in this country to perform and compete alongside white pupils for top places in examination performance.

—  Jonathan Jansen

The conservative white organisations know precisely that this is the Achilles heel of government and so they make political hay out of these leaks. AfriForum was quick to pounce, noting that “we remained concerned about the fact that fraud in matriculation examinations has now surfaced a few times in recent years.” The Freedom Front Plus went straight for the political jugular: public schools must be given the right to choose their own examination authority given these persistent leaks, for “the scandal erodes trust in the public education system.” Oi, vey!

That is why government officials bristle when the IEB examination system is even mentioned. Not because their results are released earlier than those of government or because the aggregate standards are regarded as much higher than the public exams. It is because the IEB is a real and immediate alternative for white and privileged schools to move in greater numbers towards an independent examination authority.

When that happens ― and I believe such shifts are inevitable over time ― what would be left is a hollowed-out public examination authority overseeing a black school system perceived as harbouring lower standards and producing lesser outcomes. Worse, the security and therefore the integrity of the matric exam will remain questionable given regular leaks.

How can these perceptions of declining standards, real or otherwise, be countered? By putting on a dazzling, feel-good spectacle every January to set the public mind at ease and slamming the critics for ‘populism’ and sloganeering.

It works. There is a regular portion of the State of the Nation address devoted to the ever-positive NSC results. Patriotic media alter their schedules for the big announcement and play their roles dutifully. Officials from national and the provinces line up in their Sunday best with smiles plastered all over their faces. Goosebumps stuff.

Forget the fact that almost half of the starting class in grade 1 does not make it to grade 12; that fewer pupils now write maths and physical sciences as a percentage of the cohort year; that 30% constitutes a pass in subjects other than home language; and that there is a direct correlation between fees and results at the school level. The higher the fees, the more spectacular the results.

Which, by the way, is why the department awards pupils by quintile performance: it ensures that black pupils get recognition, which I appreciate, but at the same time it covers up the inequality of outcomes where quintile 5, the well-resourced schools, give white and some Indian faces a place in the sun.

My dream for this country is that one day we have a single performance measure and not use quintiles as a way of covering up potential racial embarrassment. There are enough super-smart black pupils in this country to perform and compete alongside white pupils for top places in examination performance. But they will remain stuck in the lower quintiles unless social and economic disadvantage is redressed. Stop insulting black talent with these lesser awards.

But on Monday, we were asked to forget institutionalised inequality: the results of one grade of 12 years of schooling proves that we have a competent government that takes care of the education of our children.

Send in the clowns!