3 January 2008
MEC for Education Ms Angie Motshekga
Head of Department of Education Malele Petje
Parents and Students of the Matric Class of 2007
Ladies and Gentlemen
Greetings to all the people of Gauteng, on this important day in the lives of many of our children. For young people, fewer moments are as exciting or significant as the end of the matric year. It is, in a sense, the launch pad for life, a moment of optimism and energy.
Before turning to today's announcement, I must, emphasise that the results must not be seen as a competition between students, between schools, between teachers or between provinces. This is because we cannot compare the performance of students in a school with abundant resources to those of a school without the essentials for education.
In spite of all concerted efforts to provide equal, accessible and quality education for all, the reality is that the many of our students continue to learn under difficult conditions. There still inequality in education influenced largely by historical factors, levels of poverty that exist in society as a whole, availability of classrooms, the quality of teaching, availability of learner-teachers support material as well as the level of parental involvement in education.
The situation this year was compounded by turbulences that affected the schooling system. The public service industrial action which, for the first time in many years took teachers from the classroom, disrupted the schooling significantly. The estimated loss of school days averaged 16 days in the province.
In addition to the loss due to the public service strike, learners also went on a strike that was called up by COSAS, thus increasing the amount of teaching and learning time lost. As the results we are presenting here today indicate, these events affected schools and learners differently. Most schools in the nodal areas including Soweto, Kathorus, rural schools as well as Alexandra and Ivory Park performed poorly in 2007 while schools in resource rich and privileged suburbs dominated the top ten best performing schools. The worst performing schools are in the disadvantage townships and the inner city.
This is a trend which we have noted even in the past. At the opening of the legislature we expressed concern about the poor performance of black learners, particularly African learners, and we made a commitment to bring this to a halt. At the time we said and I quote: "While we have made important strides in redressing the inequalities inherent in the education system of the past, we have not yet succeeded in ensuring that the quality of education of the African child is up to scratch. It is the African child who learns in overcrowded schools. It is African children who have a higher failure rate. It is the township schools where the African child is based that are dysfunctional". This year's results have again proven this and reaffirmed the importance of continuing the initiative we undertook during the year, together with our stakeholders, to improve the education of the African child.
The results we are presenting today therefore reflect the reality that I have outlined. This year, at least 88487 learners sat for their matric examination in Gauteng of which more than 74.6% have passed. Although the pass rate shows a 3.7% decline compare to last year and are below the 80% target set for the year, they are still good if consideration is given to the factors I have already outlined. It could easily have been worse.
These results tell a story of hard work that teachers and learners endured to overcome the persisting difficulties. In a situation where there are still inequalities between the poor and the rich, reaching matric is in itself an achievement. Merely by reaching matric the majority of the learners have now become significantly more educated than many of their parents and other members of the community. They therefore all deserve our congratulations. Those who have not passed must however understand that they must go back and try again until they pass.
We must though celebrate those who have done exceptionally well and obtained distinctions. The total number of distinctions have increased from 10 857 in 2006 to 11802 in 2007, which represents an improvement of 8.7%. The total number of distinctions obtained by female learners increased from 6433 in 2006 to 7254 in 2007, which translates into a 12.8% improvement. A hearty congratulation to all of them. They are our joy and pride.
The Tshwane Metropolitan area must be congratulated for dominating the top ten best performing schools. Eight of the ten schools in this category are located in the City of Tshwane. The districts of Sedibeng East, Tshwane South and Johannesburg East must all be praised for achieving pass rates above the targeted 80%. Sedibeng East obtained 86, 83%, followed closely by Tshwane South and Johannesburg East at 86.53% and 84.74% respectively.
One of the most pressing challenges facing the Gauteng is the development of the necessary skills to drive economic growth and social transformation. This is more important for us we are trying to build our province as a region that is competitive in the global world.
This requires that we effect improvements in the entire education system, from childhood development to adult basic education and training as well as higher education. To improve the quality of our school system we have set ourselves a task of increasing the number of school leavers with matric exemption in maths, science and technology while ensuring that language and literacy skills are also substantially improved.
These subjects allow learners the option of pursuing their higher education studies in areas of scarce skill and therefore increase their employability and capacity to earn exceptionally good income.
It is therefore a concern that the overall pass rates in English, Mathematics and Physical Science have shown a decline this year compared to the previous years. It is however worth celebrating the fact that Dinaledi schools, a select number of schools identified for support to improve Maths and Science higher grade pass rates, have performed well. The higher grade Maths pass rate of Dinaledi schools surpassed the provincial pass rate by 1.15 % while the provincial target of 1100 learners who passed higher grade Maths in 2007 was exceeded by 715, with1815 passes achieved by Dinaledi Schools. Although not yet enough, this bodes well for our efforts provide skills required propel the economy to 8% growth and to halve poverty and unemployment by 2014.
We must seek more improvements because education will and must play a critical role in the achievement of our dream of Gauteng as a globally competitive city region. Quality education is at the heart of the economic successes of all competitive city regions. It is this quality education which will propel Gauteng and the rest of the South Africa onto a higher socio-economic plane.
African Ministers of Education declared during a UNESCO conference held in Johannesburg in 1999 that and I quote: "We are more than ever convinced that education is the sine quo non for empowering the people of Africa to participate in and benefit more effectively from the opportunities available in the globalized economy of the 21st century".
To all those who have passed matric this year, I want you to know that this is merely the end of the beginning. Many more years of learning still await you and the only way of improving yourselves and helping your families to move out of poverty, is to seek opportunities for education and training. While the economy desperately needs people with scarce skills, it equally requires people with entrepreneurial zeal to start new companies and create employment for themselves and others. Help is available and the government is committed to helping each one of you to succeed. There is therefore no excuse for failure.
In the coming year, the education department will have to prioritise worst performing schools for intensive monitoring and support, ensuring that these schools have the necessary resources to improve their performance. Text books and other learner teacher support material must be available in all school so that effective teaching and learning can take on the first day of school.
We must pay particular attention on reducing inequalities between our schools. Improvements have to be effected in the quality of teaching and in the learning condition so that all learners can have an equal chance of accomplishing their potential.