Matric results are out, and the pass rate is down

But this indicates the larger trend:
The overall pass rate dropped 2 percentage points to 60.7 percent, meaning that since 2004 the pass rate has fallen 10 percentage points. This is despite a fifth of the national budget being spent on education - far higher than the international norm.
full story from Business Report here
In the interests of accuracy, the pass rate was actually down 1.8%, and more people are doing maths and science which is supposed to be tougher subjects (something I never understood personally as these were my "easy" ones, but I guess we've all got different talents).

But a 10% drop in pass rate since 2004! And it's not as if we're not spending the money!

So what is it then? Teacher quality? Bad management? Bad leadership? Bad students?