matric results announcement, Leeuwenhof
28 December 2006
Premier Ebrahim Rasool and Ms Roshida Sabodien
Fellow Cabinet Colleagues
Superintendent-General Ron Swartz
Deputy Director-Generals
Senior officials from Western Cape Education Department
Members of the Standing Committee on Education
Members of Parliament
Chief Executive Officers of higher education institutions
Further Education Training Colleges Representatives of Teacher Unions
Governing Body Associations
Representative Council of Learners and Student Organisations
Chairperson and members of the Western Cape Youth Commission Principals
Teachers representing schools receiving awards today
Matric learners who will be honoured today and your parents
Representatives of Absa, our sponsors of today's event
Ladies and gentlemen
In his State of the Nation Address earlier this year, President Thabo Mbeki
characterised our optimistic times as the "Age of Hope".
But he also cautioned, that "we should move faster to address the challenges
of poverty, underdevelopment and marginalisation confronting those caught
within the second economy, to ensure that the poor in our country share in our
growing prosperity".
In keeping with this theme, Premier Rasool in his State of the Province
Address, noted that the province "is standing on the threshold of prosperity"
while also noting threats to hope.
Premier, the matric results that I present to you today show that we can
cross that threshold of prosperity. But, Premier, we also cannot hide from the
disparities that the results still reflect.
Ladies and gentlemen, 62 251 learners entered for the Senior Certificate
Examinations of which 42 694 were full-time learners; 12 532 part-time; and 7
025 private candidates. In total this represents an increase of 2 419 learners
compared with 2005.
Of the 39 832 learners who correctly wrote the full examination, I am proud
to say that 33 316 learners passed. This represents an overall percentage pass
of 83 7%.
Although this is slightly down from the figure of 84,4% last year, I am
pleased to note that, in real terms, 1 238 extra candidates sat the full exam
and 743 more learners passed. This increase in numbers, plus generally
consistent performance overall, bodes well for the future.
I have repeatedly stressed that we should also focus on the quality of the
passes achieved by our matrics. This year, 10 589 learners passed the Senior
Certificate with endorsement, which is 195 more learners than last year.
The number of candidates who passed with distinction is also up. This bumper
total of 2 280, or 5,73% of all candidates, who pass with distinction is our
best achievement in the period 2002 to 2006. We have seen a slight but steady
increase in this category in each of those years, so well done to the class of
2006 for keeping up the pressure!
I note other slight increases; 79 more learners sat Maths Higher Grade this
year; of the 4 741 candidates who wrote Science on the Higher Grade, 4 053
passed. This is 688 more learners than in 2005.
I would like to applaud the fact that the pass rate in ex-Department of
Education and Training (DET) schools has increased by a pleasing 3,68% this
year and that, in fact, ex-DET schools have reached their highest endorsement
rate yet over the 2002 to 2006 period, with an increase of 0,47% over last year
and a slight 0,05% increase in the number of passes with merit.
It is a matter of record that these schools have had the biggest resourcing
backlogs to make up so I am most encouraged by this evidence of diligence and
sound progress.
Our schools have a huge range of contextual variables which impact on them.
And inside these very different buildings, located in their very different
places, we have teachers, right across the province, who are remarkable and
learners, right across the province who are remarkable.
They say that teaching is a "vocation" and nobody here will contest that.
All of the successes I have listed can be attributed to the sheer passion,
planning, preparation, presentation and management skills of our vast teaching
force and the corresponding passion, planning and performance of our motivated
learners.
We do not just single out our top performing individuals today but also take
time to honour various schools. Today, we will acknowledge the achievements of
schools where the matriculation endorsement rates, and Maths and Science
results have consistently shown the greatest improvement over the last three
years, while enrolment levels have been maintained or increased.
We will also acknowledge schools where there is a consistent number of
candidates and where academic performances have similarly been consistent over
a period of three years, relative to the context within which the school
operates.
I have a special direct appeal to the high-performing schools that we will
recognise today. If you can pledge some direct support to teachers and learners
in struggling schools that would be a wonderful contribution to make.
I ask you today to consider how you might multiply your expertise and
thereby multiply hope for others. Please take this request back to your staffs
and communities and contact us in the new year if you think you can form part
of the constellation of support.
Premier, you said that there are certain threats to our crossing that
threshold to prosperity. If we are going to achieve the goal of shared growth
and prosperity, it has to start with our education system and particularly in
our schools.
I must be forthright about the challenges. I must state boldly that we can
never be happy with a situation where the public ordinary schools which serve
the 17 554 ex- House of Representatives (HOR) and ex-DET learners only have an
endorsement rate of just above 13,53% while in ex-Community Economic
Development (CED) schools the endorsement figure, for the 6 501 learners of
2006, is 52,13%.
So, Premier, whilst we are really proud of our achievers, we are not
satisfied. As the Western Cape we can and we must do better. There are six
clear interventions that we will be making:
1. Embark on the Quality Improvement, Development, Support and Upliftment
Programme (Quids-Up) programme.
This initiative, led by Minister Pandor, aims to allocate new learning
resources to schools, especially in poor and disadvantaged communities.
The programme includes all primary schools in quintiles one and two. These
primary schools are feeder schools to secondary schools that have poor results.
It also includes about 80 high schools with poor Senior Certificate
results.
On the basis of findings of an initial audit we will develop a strategic
plan to intervene over three years by providing human resources, physical
resources and material resources to schools e.g. Management training, teacher
training, laboratories, libraries.
2. Set targets
By the end of February 2007 each high school in the province is to set an
overall pass target, a Matric Endorsement target and Maths or Science targets
for 2007. These targets must be formally signed off by the School Governing
Body, including the Representative Council of Learners (RCL)
representatives.
In fact, as 2007 is the last year of the existing curriculum, all schools
will be encouraged to pull out all the stops to set individual performance
records across the board.
Targets must be measurable, meaningful, made public, monitored and met. And
then you move on meeting targets is a one-way trip. You must notch up and
celebrate each success but move on always to the next level.
As part of the target-setting, I want each high school in the province to
set targets to reduce the numbers of so-called "dropouts" for grades 10, 11,
and 12 for 2007 and subsequent years.
Too many learners are leaving the system and it would be very ironical if
this was because schools are over-emphasising the target of an exemplary pass
rate. Targets must not contradict one another.
3. Broaden our base
Work on literacy and numeracy across the board. What is also very clear to
me is that we cannot just look for weaknesses in our high schools. We need to
work in our primary schools as well.
The literacy and numeracy strategy we launched earlier this year is set to
make a huge impact especially once the full-scale family literacy programme and
our provincial language transformation plan come on stream.
"Each one, teach one, together we build a learning home for all" is the
predominant vision I have for education. My vision is for classrooms where real
learning is happening.
We have low literacy levels and even lower numeracy levels. At the same time
many of our parents are functionally illiterate. Clearly, we need to address
literacy deficits by having learning homes, learning streets, learning
communities and ultimately a learning province.
4. Make our schools a safe learning home for all
One of the issues that have impacted severely on our schools this year and
previous years is the levels of violence in and around our schools, and the
aggressive behaviour of learners.
We have planned and will implement an unprecedented inter-sectoral campaign,
to build a safe learning home, for 2007 and beyond. Discipline patterns and
codes of conduct must be set and maintained. Value-adding school improvement
plans will be put in place.
5. Monitor and evaluate
I believe the redesign process of the department must lead to greater
research capacity, monitoring, evaluation and accountability. As a learning
organisation one of our key challenges is to understand our context, challenges
and possibilities and respond to them.
The socio-economic profile of the province and the challenges we face
require of us to do something extraordinary to create the conditions for
change.
6. Tackle the situation in the 34 schools still performing below 60%.
I want to spend a little longer on this point. Premier, when you visited
schools at the beginning of the year you challenged us to implement a strategy
to focus on ensuring that the schools who obtained a less than 60% pass rate in
2005 rise above this threshold.
We are proud to announce that 22 of the schools on this special support
programme did manage to meet and in some cases far surpass this target.
I would like to single out a school in Khayalitsha which obtained 39% in
2005 and has notched up an incredible 2006 pass rate of 94%, while maintaining
the number of candidates. It is this type of success which must be analysed and
replicated.
On the 2006 results 8% of our high schools lie below the mark of 60% but
there are many more that are under-performing and not securing
endorsements.
The time has come to say that continued under-performance will simply not be
tolerated. We will conduct a full contextual analysis of each under-performing
school by the end of January 2007.
Where the main or contributing factor(s) is lack of effective leadership and
management, or of problems with fundamentally weak teachers, we will certainly
consider options of redeployment of school principals and senior management
teams, in line with accepted labour practices.
We cannot continue to let our children, who go to school every day in the
hope that they will be given a good education for a better life, be at the
mercy of either ineffective or incompetent principals or managers.
While I will look to Western Cape Education Department (WCED) officials to
help with standard-setting and assessment practices; to help with addressing
the content or knowledge of teachers; to provide rigorous guidance on pacing
and methodology and on developing literacy, language and study skills, it is
clear that the whole teaching and assessment programme at certain schools needs
to be constructively but aggressively overhauled.
I will call under-performing schools to account in 2007. I expect teachers
and learners to be present and prepared and to be teaching and learning.
Teachers and learners will be required to set and hit targets; they will
spend extra hours teaching and learning. Learners must understand that school
is a serious business. There is no substitute for hard work.
The schools must have administrative and logistical matters running smoothly
and must set up and maintain learning routines like setting and checking
homework, and giving informative feedback on learning.
I call upon parents and community members to participate. If they can
volunteer to help supervise homework at school, then we need them. If they can
come in to help teachers with admin or with checking book stock and so on then
let us open our doors. Parents in the home must monitor homework. Ladies and
gentlemen, we must all join hands to return truants to school.
Schools and communities that work together will grow together; I call on you
all to set targets and to celebrate successes; bring in your ex-students to
offer support; set up evening classes; make your schools community hubs.
Let us emulate the initiatives in Manenberg, Hanover Park and Lentegeur
where communities are elevating learning to the centre of local
mobilisation.
My message to all those that have passed is, simply, congratulations! To the
individual learners whom we honour here today, for achievement in Maths,
Sciences and Languages, and those learners who have excelled despite a
significant barrier to learning, well done, you are role models of a special
kind. To the top 20 whom we honour today, enjoy your success. You have surely
worked for it.
For those that did not make it, you do have various options available. You
can apply for a remark for some or all of your scripts; you can enter for the
supplementary exams for next year. But, you can also apply to be admitted to a
Further Education Training college for vocational courses.
To the proud parents, well done too, I know you have put in so much. To the
troubled parents of the disappointed please call our help lines for support and
advice.
Hope needs to be nurtured and cultivated. How can we all get stuck in and
make a difference? For far too many of our learners just "getting a matric" is
the biggest target they can see.
And for far too many of them there are not real plans to take them on beyond
today. They might get the bit of paper today but tomorrow there is no job and
the next day or the day after there might be no more hope.
I appeal to our partners, to business, to non-government organisation
(NGOs), to the tertiary institutions, to the media, to help our children to
find the doorways to jobs, to learnerships, to volunteerism, to internships, to
further study, so that they can live the dreams that they have for themselves
and that their parents have made sacrifices for.
Ladies and gentlemen, I want to conclude by thanking all our officials, the
examiners, markers, invigilators, teachers, principals and administrative
personnel for helping to process over one million scripts.
It really is a huge operation, so thank you to the Curriculum and Exams
Teams, under the capable leadership of Brian Schreuder and Sigamoney Naicker. I
must thank in particular, Andre Clausen and Jenny Rault-Smith who together with
hundreds of personnel worked long hours to deliver another examination of
integrity and professionalism.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Gert Witbooi
Media Liaison Officer
Tel: (021) 467 2523
Fax: (021) 425 5689
E-mail: gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Education, Western Cape Provincial Government
28 December 2006
