WAG.

1) The authors fundamental purpose is to create awareness to the

reader that school standards are no longer the same as what they
were, and that they have decreased in quality. The author makes it
known that the schooling system has lowered the pass rate making
it very easy for people to pass and get into university. For this
reason, people accepted into university, from a government
schooling system, usually struggle with coping at a varsity level.
Therefore the fundamental purpose is to show that the people
accepted into university are weaker than what they used to be due
to a weaker schooling system and an easier to achieve pass mark.
2) The viewpoint from the author is that the schooling system is run
down. The author makes mention that the people who do well in
school should not take their results too seriously as they are an
inflated version of what they should be. The author also states that
because it is so easy for people to get a Bachelors Degree Pass,
people struggle at university. The increased amount of people
struggling per year has increased the drop-out rate. The author is
evidently not happy with the education system as he states that he
would not want to put his own daughter through the government
schooling system for fear that the marks his daughter would get,
would only be a misrepresentation of what they actually are.
3) The assumptions that the author makes in his reasoning are that
people who get below a 70% aggregate on a government schooling
system level should not go to university as they will find it very
difficult and struggle unless they work very hard. The main
assumption being that on a government schooling system the
people going through to university are unable to handle the
standard and the amount of work and thus the people in university
on a government schooling system are usually the ones to drop out.
It is because of the exceptionally high pass rate along with the low
standard of education that the people who go to university drop out,
and it is these people that cause a misrepresentation of the level of
the standard of work at a university level. It is because of this
schooling system that universities have come up with their own
testing standards to see the actual level of understanding that a
student has; tests like National Benchmark Tests.
4) The most fundamental conclusions drawn from this article are: that
the government has lowered the pass rate such that there is a
misrepresentation of the amount of people who are actually capable
of passing a matric with 50%. That the students being accepted into
university, from a government schooling system, are no longer as
intellectually strong as what they were and therefore are unable to

cope with university. That universities have a much higher drop-out

rate than before due to an underachieving schooling system. That
achieving at least a 70% aggregate on a government schooling
system should be the minimum requirement when people choose
whether to go to university or not.
5) The key question the author is trying to answer is why there is this
very high drop-out rate at university. In answering this question, the
author has explained that it is a grassroots level problem, in that it
is due to a weaker education. This weak education that students
receive is why they battle at university as they have not been
trained intellectually to cope with the standard of work at a varsity
level.