By Mzukona Mantshontsho
South Africa’s education system faces a stark dropout crisis, with attrition often building unnoticed over years until it’s too late. Despite the 2025 matric class achieving a record 88% pass rate, this milestone masks a harsh truth: only 778,000 full-time learners sat the exams out of 1.2 million who started Grade 1 in 2014.
Yo School Magazine had a follow up chat with Mark Anderson, Koa Academy’s Co-founder and Principal about his thoughts for our learners and our education system going forward.
Koa Academy is an online school providing an IEB education for children in Grades 4–12 through a structured yet individualised online learning environment.
Pioneers of the “micro-learning Pod” model, Koa Academy places each student in a small class of just 8 peers, known as a Pod. These Pods are highly engaging and allow children to learn at their own pace while receiving constant access to outstanding academic support from a team of experienced, SACE-registered educators.
Koa Academy’s academic programme is purpose-built for online learning and delivers integrated teaching across the South African curriculum. It combines the best curated resources from around the world, ongoing age-appropriate assessment, and high levels of teacher interaction—supported by a Student Dashboard designed to make progress visible and motivating.
Koa Academy is reimagining what schooling can be: accessible, engaging, and real-world relevant.
Why does the dropout crisis begin long before matric results?
By the time matric results are released, most of the real story has already unfolded. Typically, learners don’t suddenly disengage in Grade 12 – disengagement usually builds gradually over years. It often starts quietly – falling behind in one subject, feeling confused but not speaking up, struggling to keep up with workload, or dealing with pressures outside of school. When those early signs aren’t recognised or supported in time, participation begins to drop. Over time, learners may withdraw, stop contributing, or start feeling that “school just isn’t for me.”
Why are pass rates alone an incomplete measure of system health?
Pass rates tell us how many learners made it to the final exam and passed it. What they don’t show is how many learners left along the way, or how many are still in the system but quietly disengaged. It’s possible to celebrate improved pass rates while still losing large numbers of learners before matric. It can also overlook students who pass, but whose underlying challenges were never properly addressed.
Finally, pass rates tell us how well a cohort did in an exam, but not how well they will do in life. Formal summative assessments are not as relevant as they used to be for determining real world success.
How can AI strengthen, not replace, teacher-led intervention?
AI shouldn’t replace human intervention – and it can’t. Student support is relational. It depends on trust, understanding, professional judgement, and human connection. Where AI can help is in bringing structure and clarity to patterns that might otherwise be missed, as well as making our systems and approaches more efficient, personalised and engaging.
It’s all about context (where it’s used) and application (how it’s used). In that sense, AI doesn’t remove the human element, it strengthens the processes that allow human support to happen more consistently and effectively.
What early-warning education systems mean for long-term economic growth?
When learners disengage early, the long-term effects extend far beyond school. Lower retention means fewer young people completing their education, which affects employment prospects, earnings potential, and overall economic participation.
Student support systems are really about keeping more learners on track. If schools can identify challenges sooner and respond more consistently, more young people stay engaged, complete their education, and build stronger foundations.
Over time, that contributes to a more skilled, more confident generation entering the workforce, which is essential in a country facing high youth unemployment. Early support in the classroom may seem small, but at scale, it shapes long-term economic resilience.
