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Johannesburg - The majority of matriculants are unemployable, trade union Solidarity said on Tuesday.
"School in effect does not prepare pupils, even those who pass, for the labour market," Solidarity said.
Only four out of every 10 matriculants who enter the labour force after matric are expected to find employment, while the rest are likely to remain unemployed.
It released the Solidarity Research Institute's (SRI's) annual report on the prospects for 2010's matriculants, and warned that 2011 was likely to be a difficult year for South African employees and job seekers.
"Job opportunities will continue to be limited," said Dirk Hermann, the deputy general secretary of Solidarity.
"The current state of the labour market will already prove challenging for this year's matriculants," he said.
The SRI research shows that the majority of matriculants did not become skilled enough in critical subjects like mathematics in school.
Of the more than 552 000 matrics who wrote the matric exam in 2009, only 60.6% passed.
Only 24.2% (133 789) of the entire group passed mathematics with a mark of 30% or higher.
Only 9.6% of matriculants (52 866) passed mathematics with a mark of 50% or higher, while a mere 1.6% obtained a distinction in this subject.
"If these percentages are compared with the total number of pupils who started their school education in 1998 and who should have matriculated in 2009, the picture looks even more grim," Hermann said.
Of the 1.44 million pupils who started school 12 years ago, only 0.6% eventually obtained a distinction in mathematics in 2009.
