Address by The MEC for Education in KwaZulu- Natal, 2017 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results, Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC)
Wena Wendlovu, Wena Wendlovu, Bayede!! His Majesty, Ngangezwe Lakhe
Programme Director,
Dr EV Nzama – the Head of Department
Honourable Premier, Mr Willies Mchunu
Speaker of the KZN Legislature, Honourable Ms Lydia Johnson
My Colleagues and Members of the Executive Council
Provincial Chairperson of the ANC, Mr Sihle Zikalala & entire Leadership Chairperson of the National Portfolio Committee on Basic Education,
Honourable Ms Nomalungelo Gina
Chairperson of the Education Portfolio Committee, Ms Linda Hlongwa- Madlala
Members of the National Parliament and Provincial Legislature
Chairperson of the House of the Traditional Leaders, Inkosi Chiliza Mayors
Senior Management and Officials of the Department
Senior Management and Officials of Sister Departments
Principals of Schools
Educators and Parents
Our Top Achievers present today
Leaders and Representatives from Organised Labour
Representatives from School Governing Bodies
Faith-Based Organisations,
Civil Society,
Learner and Student Bodies
Our Social and Business Partners in Education
Members of the Media Fraternity
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Allow me to say “Good Morning to all of you on this important day”
Programme Director, it is indeed a great honour for us, led by the Honourable Premier, to convene today in the presence of Uhlanga Lomhlabathi neNdlunkulu KaZulu.
Bayede!!!
Our idea to involve His Majesty in matters pertaining to education was informed by a simple logic, the fact that His Majesty, the King, is the Father to all who live in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal and all races of the Zulu Nation who reside both within and outside the Province.
We felt it necessary to involve His Majesty in our plans if we had to have a holistic approach to educational matters in the Province.
His Majesty’s stature, pedigree and his contribution to the livelihood and well-being of the people of KwaZulu-Natal speaks for itself. As a Patron of Education in this province, his meeting with school principals and SGB Chairpersons in various districts has certainly influenced and inspired all and sundry.
We will forever be indebted to the words of wisdom and wealth of knowledge through the words that His Majesty shared with our school principals. We are very grateful to you Hlangalomhlabathi for allowing us to benefit from your wisdom and for inspiring us with your vision. Bayede!!!
Programme Director, Wosiyane!! we are equally very honoured to release the National Senior Certificate and Adult Education and Training (AET) results for 2017, a year that as a country and the African National Congress, we dubbed as the year of Oliver Reginald Tambo, one of the chief architects of the democracy which we are enjoying today.
O. R. Tambo was a living example of how education can take someone from poverty and obscurity to becoming an internationalist of note and the most influential leader in the history of world politics in general and particularly that of our glorious movement, the African National Congress.
We find Oliver Tambo more relevant and meaningful to us as a sector in that he was an educator-par-excellence. What is more inspiring about Comrade Tambo is not only that he was an outstanding teacher, but the fact that he exposed the myth that Mathematics and Science were difficult subjects and that these subjects were of no value to the oppressed majority in this country.
Condolences
As we reflect on the 2017 school year, we cannot forget that we started the year on a very sad note as we lost five (5) learners in a road accident at Ntuzuma-KwaMashu area on their way to school on the very first day of the year.
Early in the year we further lost a dedicated female teacher in Umgungundlovu District who was brutally murdered inside the classroom while teaching Grade 12 learners on a Saturday.
During the year, we also sadly lost the District Director of Umgungundlovu – Ms Jennifer Baiju
During the course of the year we lost four (4) learners in a taxi accident at Fawnleas near Dalton.
As if that was not enough, we further lost three (3) teachers and one (1) admin clerk in another road accident near Ladysmith. The four (4) were on their way to schools at Matiwane and became victims of taxi violence.
We also remember all our officials, teachers and learners who passed on during the course of the year. May their souls rest in peace!!!
Our deepest condolences go to all of their families and their loved ones. Accountability
Honourable Premier, we are determined to make our province one of the best performing provinces in the country. In 2017 we took bold decisions aimed at strengthening our system at various levels. Where we deemed it necessary to re-deploy some of our officials we did not hesitate to do so. As a result, we are beginning to see positive signs which are indications of a stabilizing and maturing system. We are embarking on a well calculated drive to enforce accountability at all levels.
We redeployed District Directors of Ilembe, Pinetown and Harry Gwala. As it will be seen, these Districts have improved their performance. Such bold decisions have indeed paid-out
Stakeholder involvement and labour peace
Having said that, as the Department we are pleased that in 2017 we achieved labour peace and we managed to strengthen our partnership with Organized Labour, School Governing Body Associations and other critical stakeholders. Labour peace remains one of our priorities as it ensures uninterrupted teaching and learning, time on task and task on time.
We clearly articulated this in the budget speech for the 2017/18 financial year.
Top in our priority list for 2018 is to ensure stability in all schools. It is for this reason that in November and December 2017 we released two (2) bulletins advertising school-based promotional posts as we are determined to strengthen management structures in our schools.
SGB elections in March
One of the key activities in our 2018 calendar of events is the election of new School Governing Bodies in March. We therefore urge parents to actively participate in the election relevant people who will be capable of making positive contribution in education so that we can strengthen governance in schools.
The departmental budget
Ladies and Gentlemen, I think it is necessary that we always remind you of our budgetary constraints and the meaning thereof. Much as we get the biggest slice of the provincial budget, it is important to mention that out of the R 47 billion that we got in the 2017/2018 financial year, more than 86% of this budget goes to the compensation of employees. That leaves the Department with very limited funds for purposes of resource provisioning to schools and infrastructure projects.
While today we announce these positive results, more resources and support will be needed if we are to deliver to our capacity. This system can deliver far above 80% if resources are allocated.
Infrastructure damages
A significant number of our schools were severely damaged by storms again in 2017 which added to our already existing infrastructure backlog. We are, however, grateful to the Honourable Premier and the entire Executive for swift response in providing relief to the Department.
R133.6 million infrastructure grant incentive
In spite of our budget limitations we continue to manage our funds prudently. Our efforts in the current financial year (2017/18) have been recognized and rewarded again.
We are excited to announce that the National Treasury has given us R133.6 million infrastructure grant incentive. This incentive is only given to provincial education departments that use their infrastructure budget judiciously after a joint assessment conducted by National Treasury and the Department of Basic Education.
This R133.6 million will go a long way in assisting us to reduce our infrastructure backlog in 2018/19 financial year.
Programmes to promote learner attendance
As the Department of Education our core business is quality teaching and learning. We can only achieve this when learners attend regularly. It is in that context that we have implemented a number of programmes aimed at minimising learner absenteeism. Such programmes include the provision of:
- National School Nutrition Programme;
- Sanitary towels to deserving girl learners; and
- Learner transport including ferry boats which is an initiative that is found in KwaZulu-Natal only.
Announcing the results
As we present the 2017 National Senior Certificate and AET Level 4 results we want to make it clear that as KwaZulu-Natal we acknowledge our strategic location and the corresponding responsibilities towards the achievement of the national goals. The biggest learner numbers that we contribute as the province place an added responsibility to us. Needless to say that our province contributed the highest National Senior Certificate examination candidates again in2017.
Our situation is even compounded by the very rural nature of our province. As government, we firmly believe that education remains the only gateway to breaking cycles of poverty and improving rural lives of our communities.
We are very clear that we need to double our resources and efforts in whatever we do to compensate for our contextual factors.
Honourable Premier, we are assembled here today to celebrate the achievements of the 2017 National Senior Certificate and AET Level 4 candidates.
Their hard work is rewarded with certificates that will open doors to their bright future. It is the culmination of a lengthy process of teaching and learning that was supported by tens of thousands of our teachers, parents and all other stakeholders across the province and beyond.
As the Department we are satisfied with the performance but we do acknowledge that we can still do better. The year 2017 was characterised by a lot of hard work which saw us criss-cross the length and breadth of our province.
All our 2017 interventions were organised under the umbrella of the Provincial Academic Improvement Plan.
We appreciate a more active role that the media played in 2017. They actively participated in our programmes throughout the year. Our sincere appreciation goes to SABC radio stations, especially Ukhozi FM, Lotus FM, East Coast Radio, Igagasi, all Community Radio Stations and print media, especially the Independent Media. Our partnership with the media houses enabled us to reach all corners of the province – in supporting our learners.
Honourable Premier, we announce the 2017 results bearing in mind that some of the candidates who sat for the examinations carry all the hopes of their families as they seek ways to break the cycle of poverty they inherited from their forebears.
We wish to take this opportunity to remind this gathering that in 2017 KwaZulu-Natal had 124 317 NSC candidates and 21 323 AET candidates. Undoubtedly these figures demonstrate that we are the biggest education department in the country.
Having said that, we further wish to indicate that in 2017 we had few districts whose performance throughout the year really caused us sleepless nights. In spite of all the resources and support we provided, those districts continued to perform below our expectations. As we enter 2018 we are ready to implement necessary corrective measures that may see even those districts outperforming themselves.
As we announce the 2017 National Senior Certificate examination results we wish to begin by presenting overall performance per district. In their order of performance, starting from the lowest to the highest, the districts performed as follows:
|
In 2016 Umgungundlovu District obtained 76.38% and was ranked district number two (2) in the province. In 2017 this District achieved 81.51% making it the highest performing district. We congratulate the Acting District Director, Mr Mabinza, the entire district team, principals of schools, teachers, parents and learners.
In addition, we wish to recognize Amajuba District, under the leadership of Reverend Sithole for achieving 80.51% pass rate making it the second highest performing district and Umkhanyakude District under Mr Motha as the third highest performing district at 77.01%.
This is a simplified analysis and comparison of districts which is essential to conduct if we have to push every district to its maximum potential.
Overall, all twelve districts improved from the 2016 NSC results and the most improved district is Ilembe with an improvement of 12.49%. Also noted for their significant improvements are Pinetown by 9.13%, King Cetshwayo by 8.22%, Umkhanyakude by 7.84% and Ugu by 7.69%.
Umlazi District is the least improved district by 1.06%.
The 2017 overall pass rate for KwaZulu-Natal is 72.87%. In actual numbers that translates to 90 589 passes who sat for the National Senior Certificate examinations. The province’s overall pass percentage excluding progressed learners is 73.61% which is only 0.74% more.
In 2016, there were 147 648 learners that wrote NSC Examinations and 36139 of these achieved Bachelor passes. In percentage, this translated to 24.47%.
In 2017, there were 124 317 learners of which 35 687 achieved Bachelor passes. This translates to 28.70%.
Therefore the province has increased the Bachelor passes by 4.23%. This is a good story to tell!!!
Of the 124 317 candidates who sat for the National Senior Certificate examinations, 69 715 were girl leaners. That is 56% of the total number of candidates. 71.38% of the girl learners passed their examinations.
From the 5 356 progressed learners who wrote all the subjects, 3 026 candidates passed. That gives us 56.5% pass rate for progressed learners.
A total number of 35 687 candidates, which is 28.7% of the 2017 cohort that wrote examinations, obtained bachelor passes and qualify to study towards university degrees.
The DDGs will present provincial high achievers and award winners.
We are pleased to announce that in 2017 the province again improved in both Mathematics and Physical Sciences. The overall Mathematics pass percentage is 41.59% compared to 37.91% in 2016 and 65.11% in Physical Sciences compared to 57.76% in 2016.
We also see a steady increase in schools that achieve 100% pass rate. There are 109 schools at 100% pass rate in 2017 compared to 85 schools in 2016.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is indeed good progress for our province and signs are there for everyone to see that we are on the right track.
The province has reduced the number of schools that achieved 0% from 7 in 2016 to ONLY 3 in 2017. All these schools will receive the maximum attention this year in order to completely eliminate this category.
While we do that, the principals and their circuit managers will be made to account for such dismal performance in spite of the support and additional resources that we provided during the course of 2017. It cannot be business as usual.
In spite of all these few setbacks, we are proud that the 2017 results showed positive signs of stabilization in our system.
We take this opportunity to congratulate the class of 2017 for their achievements. They have made us proud as a province. Their performance leaves us in no doubt that we are indeed a province on the rise – as we march towards claiming our rightful place among the best performing provinces. These results should demonstrate to everyone that we are unstoppable!!!
We continue to observe that the high performing schools are characterized by dedication and hard work’ as the main drivers behind their success. This is the culture that we endeavour to inculcate in all schools in the province.
We congratulate all the candidates that passed and encourage them to pursue further studies towards their bright future. As this government we will always do our best in making bursaries available to needy and deserving students to pursue their studies.
We have already advertised limited bursaries that we will award this year (2018) to non-employees residing in KwaZulu-Natal. Bursaries are targeting young people who want to be pursue teaching profession specializing in Mathematics, Science, Technology, Agriculture, Sport and Maritime Studies.
In addition, when we visited the Usethubeni Youth School in Westville Correctional Services during the 2017 examinations we committed to award a bursary to each candidate that would achieve a minimum of five (5) symbol A’s in different subjects. Today we are going to fulfil that. Hence you see them in our midst.
We sincerely thank all our sponsors, funders, business people and organizations that continue to make valuable contributions to education.
Second chance matric programme
For those learners who did not make it in 2017, we would really want to encourage them to use all available opportunities that will enable them to re-write the subjects they did not pass. We have programmes such as the Second Chance Matric Programme to support. Through programmes of this nature we provide necessary support to learners in preparation for examinations.
2018 commitment
Honourable Premier, for the current academic year we will set ourselves high standards in order to take this province to the next level. Here are some of the things we will do:
1. Improve overall functionality in schools.
2. Increase levels of accountability at all levels.
3. Make ‘time on task and task on time’ a non-negotiable.
4. Put systems in place to improve learner attainment in all grades.
We are confident that 2018 will be a successful year for all of us. We will not allow anything to take our eyes away from ‘the ball’.
We have already provided schools with necessary basic resources for the 2018 school year.
We will also continue to deal with public schools that continue to put measures in place to exclude learners, who in the main, come from poor background. This practice cannot be tolerated.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we want to make a call to all those who have interest and a role to play in education to come forward and partner with us in this journey. As we demonstrated in 2017, together we can always do better!!!
We want to repeat that this year we will demonstrate our resolve to make our department the best. It is indeed in our own hands – all of us.
Finally, we thank His Majesty, the King; our Honourable Premier; all Members of the Executive; the Education Portfolio Committee; the ruling party that deployed us - the ANC; Organized Labour; School Governing Body Formations; Sister Departments; Local Governments; business people; all role-players and the people of KwaZulu-Natal for your continued commitment and support.
Let us make 2018 the best year for our children.
Thank you!!!
