The drop-out rate among SA high school pupils is more pronounced after Grade 9, the education department said on Friday.

This was the result of the Learner Retention Report released to the public by the department's Ministerial Committee on Learner Retention in the South African Schooling System.

"There is a problem of learner retention, which is more pronounced after Grade 9. The drop-out rate below Grade 9 is statistically insignificant, but increases sharply from Grades 10 to 12," the seven-member committee concluded.

It said that some pupils who left school after grade nine did not drop out of the education system as they had completed their compulsory school phase (Grade R to nine).

Pupils who had completed this phase could go on to other options to further their education -- for example by going to Further Education and Training colleges.

"The current redevelopment of Further Education and Training colleges will increase the number of pupils leaving the formal academic school system without matriculating," the committee said.

"But this is not a failure of the system. It is vitally important... that children have a choice of pursuing vocational rather than academic options after completing the compulsory school phase."

The committee was established in April 2007 to conduct an investigation into the extent of retention and dropout in the schooling system.

The report also showed that learner attainment had risen dramatically over the past 30 years. This was true of the racial gap in attainment.

"There is only a difference of 14 percent between the proportion of whites and ... Africans who have completed primary school.

"This is not the case for matric and university qualifications."

The report also found that younger age groups had a better chance of progressing to secondary school compared to older age groups. The committee also found that the way in which the drop out rate was calculated was flawed.

It said all the methodologies widely used in the media in the past were flawed. These ranged from calculations where the number of pupils in a grade were subtracted from the number of pupils in the next grade of the following year. This would then be declared the difference in dropouts.

It also called for serious attention to be given to the collection of education data. It suggested that the department's learner tracking system should accelerate sound methods of determining dropout rates.

"The system would have to be operational for a number of years before being used to develop a meaningful conclusion on internal efficiency," it said.

It said the department should publish survival and dropout rates based on the General Households Survey "although these can only be calculated with precision when a significant number of the cohort has passed beyond school education."