Announcement of the 2014 Matric examination results speech by Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng Education MEC
Premier David Makhura; Minister of Basic Education Fellow MECs;
Executive Mayors and Councillors;
The Chairperson of the Education Portfolio Committee and fellow MPLs; Former Deputy Minister of Health and Deputy Provincial Secretary of the ANC
Leadership of the Alliance Structures together with our Youth and Women's Structures
The HOD, Boy Ngobeni
Officials of the Gauteng Department of Education;
Leadership of our teacher unions and organised labour; school governing body associations; faith-based organisations; civic associations; and youth; learner and student bodies
Principals; educators; parents; our top achievers who have joined us here today.
Ladies and Gentlemen, comrades and friends,
It was indeed a singular honour last night for us as the 5th Administration under the leadership of our dynamic Premier to be declared the best in our country. To us, as the Transformation, Modernisation and Re-industrilisation ' team, this was an affirmation of the correct path we have taken as the provi nce to remain the best in all the things we do. We committed ourselves as MEC's respect our voters, to serve our people with loyalty but above all to be servants of our people. We remain proud that we are accountable only to you, the voters.
Our achievements last night continue on the achievements we scored since last year. The United Nations declared our matric enrichment programme SSIP as the best in the world. Our HOD was voted the Best Head of Department in the country. The Institute of Race Relations has just announced Gauteng's education quality as the best.
I am further humbled by the class of 2014. For them to be the best in the country at 84.7% reaffirms our rallying call that to be the best, you must beat the best. But we still remain concerned that our best is still not the best in the world. We have committed ourselves to compare our performance with our African counterparts together with other developing countries of BRICS.
Quality education enables people to develop all of their attributes and skills to achieve their potential as human beings and members of society. In the words of the Delors Commission (UNESCO, 1996): "Education is at the heart of both personal and community development; its mission is to enable each of us, without exception, to develop all our talents to the full and to realise our creative potential, including responsibility for our own lives and achievement of our personal aims."
- Quality education is a human right and a public good.
- Quality education provides the foundation for equity in society.
- Quality education is one of the most basic public services. It not only enlightens but also empowers citizens and enables them to contribute to the maximum extent possible to the social and economic development of their communities.
The class of 2014 is the seventh cohort of learners to sit for the National Senior Certificate (NSC) since its inception in 2008. Although the National Curriculum Statement was reviewed three times since its inception, the 2014 class went through a single curricular in each band - the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS Grade R - 9) in the General Education and Training Band (GET) from 2002 to 2011; and the National Curriculum Statement Grade R - 12 ( CAPS) from 2012 to 2014.
The Class of 2014 is the FIRST to write the final exam that is CAPS-aligned.
This cohort has benefited from the maturity of the system garnered over the past years. It is the first Further Education and Training (FET) cohort to write the NSC Examinations that are CAPS aligned. CAPS has benefited this class over the last three years. This means that they started with it in grade 10 in 2012. Concerted efforts were made at all levels - provincial; district and school - to provide the grade 12 learners and teachers with the necessary support towards the successful implementation of the 2014 NSC examinations.
Premier,
Colleagues and Friends,
With this in mind, I come to the matric 2014 pass rate. You may recall that I said our system should strive to improve or sustain the 2013 benchmark performance. We have not met that aspiration in 2014. We have come close.
The provincial pass rate in matric 2014 is 84,7%. Gauteng has once again, this year, achieved the top national performance and we do have many reasons to celebrate with our learners and educators. While the performance is down 2,3% on the 2013 (87%) performance, I remain convinced that we can do much better provincially.
It is also be noted that this is the first group of learners who were progressed without having met Grade 11promotion requirements to go through. It would be unwise to blame the under performance in some subjects in the NSC on these learners because some of them have achieved a pass in the 2014 NSC results. The phenomenon of progressing learners who have not met promotion requirements is not unique to South Africa. It happens in countries like Finland, Sweden, Denmark, japan, Korea, and the United Kingdom. These countries are pro automatic progression instead of repetition. This approach has been found to be efficient. We have carried out our first step in dealing with inefficiency.
What is more important, perhaps, than our 84,7% pass rate for 2014, are the detailed indicators showing the increasing quality of the teaching and learning in our schools in the province. It is the details of the 2014 results which show that the upward trajectory of the last five years continues. And that the improvements remain sustainable even while we respond to a growing learner population.
Five key indicators - geography, gender, achievement in maths and science, achievement in language, and the number of university endorsements - serve as important points of reference.
Geography
Particularly pleasing is the fact that all 15 education districts in Gauteng achieved a matric pass rate above 78,9%. We are also happy that the country's best performing district which achieved a 92,7% pass rate, is Gauteng West! We have also made significant strides in closing the gap between schools serving poor communities and those with a strong middle class component, as shown by the narrowing gap in the performance by fee paying and no fee schools.
In 2009, no-fee schools achieved an average pass rate of 60.1%, with fee paying schools at 84.2%, making for a gap of 24.1 percentage points. In 2014, the gap has been narrowed to 12,4% percentage points while both school types achieved better results, with no-fee schools achieving a pass rate of 78,6% and fee paying schools 91,1%.
- Three districts improved on their performance since 2013:
- in Ekurhuleni North pass rate rose from 88,2% pass rate in 2013 to 87,8% pass rate in 2014, the year on year increase is 0,6% and from the 83,3% in 2010 to 88,7% in 2014 - this represents a 6,6% improvement since 2010.
- in Johannesburg South the pass rate rose from 84,6% pass rate in 2013 to 87,8% pass rate in 2014, the year on year increase is 3,8% and from the 77% in 2010 to 87,8% in 2014 - this represents a 14% improvement since 2010.
- in Gauteng West pass rate rose from 90,1% pass rate in 2013 to 92,7% pass rate in 2014, the year on year increase is 2,9%. From the 82% in 2010 to 92,7% in 2014 - this represents a 13,1% improvement since 2010.
In Gauteng, 13 out of 15 districts performed above 80% and the other two performed between 70% and 79%. Four Gauteng districts were among the top five districts, nationally: Gauteng West at 92.7%; Sedibeng East District at 90.7%; Ekurhuleni North at 88.7%, at position 1, 2 and 3 and with Johannesburg South at 88.1% fifth position.
We have not finalised our analysis of districts, but we are convinced that we will gather information that will assist in formulating appropriate policies and appropriate interventions. As I said last year we have to attend to the matter of schools that consistently perform below par. The issue of small schools must also be resolved, as must the urgent matter of the 30 public schools that achieved less than 60%.
District analysis allows a more nuanced perspective on the district-level unit of organisation in the provinces. It also provides us with direct information about schools. The district review shows that all districts in the province there are remarkably successful districts. We need to emphasise that there is significant internal migration within provinces and that this should be compared to our knowledge of the impact of inter-provincial migration.
Maths and science
There is general agreement that our success rates in mathematics and science are still below the levels necessary to respond satisfactorily to our skills needs. We have dealt with our planned responses in this area in other platforms. We will be doing more to increase the success rates in these critical subjects.
The maths passes, at 69,3%, this year is commendable, but the numbers are not yet enough to ensure our accelerated growth targets. While this is above the national targeted of 60%, it does show a decline from 2013. The successful achievers in mathematics deserve our congratulations because the 2014 exam was a very tough paper. In addition, we need to emphasise that there was no change in the percentage pass rate in Mathematical Literacy.
In Physical Science the pass rate is 68,3%, a decline from 2013. Our performance in the life sciences was above 80%. The continued performance above the national target of 60'% still maintains this as a positive indication of progress.
Language
The issue of language looms large in South African schooling, given that the majority of children study in a second language. This year there have been significant increases in the numbers passing languages on the higher grade.
English as a Second Language is the subject with the largest number of registrations, but the performance of the candidates in this exam is extremely low and levels of achievement have not changed over the years.
However, I am pleased to see the growing number of passes in indigenous languages.
Gender
More girls sit the matric exam, pass the exam, and achieve university endorsements than boys, but their percentage pass rate (84%) is lower than boys (85,5%). This means that more girls fail than boys. In this exam the highest achievers are girls; they outnumber boys in merit and distinction awards.
Quality of passes
Gauteng contributed the highest number of candidates qualifying for Bachelor studies in 2014 at 36 843 or 24,4% of the 150 752 learners who qualified for admission to Bachelor studies nationally.
In Gauteng, just over 37% of learners who wrote passed with a Bachelors pass, while 35% of learners who wrote passed with a diploma pass. I am encouraged by the fact that more learners who passed the National Senior Certificate exams in 2014 passed with a Bachelors or Diploma pass as compared to learners in 2013. The trend is clearly upwards in terms of candidates qualified to go into higher education.
Given the comments by Umalusi and the very tough papers in some of the national subjects, 84,7% is a good achievement. The pass rate in the senior certificate exam provides us with information about the performance of our schools and our pupils.
SSIP Performance
For many, this success has been achieved under the efforts of our Secondary School Improvement Program me, called SSIP for short.
This year, our SSIP program targeted 60 000 grade 12 learners in 440 priority schools from the word go in January 2014. These were designated priority schools because for historic and other reasons, they have in the past not achieved the outcomes learners, parents, and the GDE expect.
Our strategy in 2014 again focused on continuously improving teaching and learning in all targeted schools, monitoring late coming and educator absence, assessment practices, accounting sessions with school management teams, setting of and compliance with targets, provision of learning and teaching resources, data management and record keeping, as well as leadership and governance.
It involves meetings with parents to encourage them to ensure their children make use of these additional possibilities. As part of the SSIP program in 2014, we again held monthly meetings in schools to assess progress on curriculum coverage, school based assessment completion, and analysis of learner performance.
The SSIP also programme provides extra classes by expert teachers on Saturdays and during school holidays, as well as the final matric revision camps in October.
In short, we were again determined to ensure that these under performing schools were given the leadership, support and every possible opportunity to allow them to serve thei r communities as they should.
So it is particularly pleasing to be able to tell you today that the SSIP program has not only once again proven its value. But that it has done so with improved results which show that more township children than ever are benefitting from the efforts all involved in SSIP have put into the program.
The sustained improvement in results over the last four years show the SSIP system is improving teaching and learning inside the prioritised schools themselves.
No fewer than 409 of the 440 schools in the SSIP program during 2014 have achieved a pass rate above 60%. Of the 409 schools above 60%, 127 achieved a pass rate of between 80% and 90%, and 105 schools at a pass rate above 90%.
Since 2009 the number of public schools participating in the SSIP program with a pass rate below 60% has declined from 188 to just 30 in 2014.
It goes without saying that most of the schools within the SSIP program bear the burden of the legacy of pre-1994 education policy. We as the GDE have been determined to do everything within our power not only to get these priority schools to the poi nt where they can educate African children as they should, but more importantly, to ensure that these schools remain consistent as full members of the education system in Gauteng.
Actions to address the key trends in our performance
System performance and learner performance across all grades and all schools is nonnegotiable. Since the start of this new term I have consistently said that quality performance must be a key feature of what and how we deliver education. I have also said that there will be consequences where performance is no satisfactory.
Firstly, those 6 schools, one public and five independent school, that have incidences of group cheating, will immediately be suspended as exam centres pending the investigation by the Provincial Irregularity committee. If the public school is found to be complicit, the management of the public school will be removed and replaced immediately. If an independent school is found to be involved in group cheating, the department will begin legal process to de-register the institution. It should also be noted that the results of those affected centres have also been withheld pending the investigation.
Secondly, I have requested the Head of Department, to deal with the under-performing schools. A rapid school evaluation will be undertaken and, where necessary, the entire school management teams need to be removed and replaced. The policy direction of merging and twinning of schools is primarily driven to address this problem of poor governance and management that contributes negatively to learner performance and success. It is for this reason that that we will accelerate interventions in underperforming schools to ensure the future success of all learners.
Thirdly, all affected district and head office managers and officials, whose performance in the matric exams have declined 2,3% or more, have been served with notice of intent to institute disciplinary processed. I have requested the HOD to immediately remove the district directors where the district performance has dropped below 80%.
Fourthly, we will undertake in the next few days, detailed school by school analysis to identify the subjects where schools are continuously preforming poorly and to remove those teachers that cannot meet the challenges and to support those that are having challenges in some topics in the curriculum.
Fifthly, the Secondary School Interventions Programme (SSIP) will begin work in poorly performing schools immediately and will expand its focus to include mathematics at grade 9 Level. This is in response to the poor performance in the 2014 ANA tests.
Finally, we will support all matriculants that have failed. We will provide supplementary programmes to assist learners who qualified for the supplementary examinations. We will assist them in the subjects they have failed to ensure that they completed the requirements for passing. Where learners need to re-write the exams in 2015, we request these learners to register at the nearest ABET centre with a matric rewrite programme or to contact the nearest district office for assistance in getting placement in a centre.
Enriching school resources
Moving forward, we must address the system weakness to increase performance and reduce dropouts.
We have particularly emphasised the continual improvement of access to the quality education which can open doors to jobs and further qualifications for children from poor and working class communities across the province, most of whom, as you know, are African. What these figures are telling us is that we have not only managed to keep pace as the numbers of learners have grown with the expanding numbers of residents in Gauteng. They are telling us that we have, with the support of the provincial and national governments, continued to improve learning and teaching in the province, to the benefit of all of our people.
So what lessons can we learn from these results?
First we need to improve access to school for post-15 year olds. Several studies have shown the numbers of pupils who drop-out at grade 10. We have to encourage children and particularly boys to remain in school. We believe that the new curriculum offers our system to realise this goal.
Second, we need to address specific quality issues. We need to support our schools in ensuring that learners achieve high levels of competence in the languages of teaching and learning. We need to tackle the conditions that tend to make schools in rural areas, on farms and in townships less effective sites of learning. And we need to introduce a comprehensive policy to attract candidates into teaching as a vital and respected career, to provide high quality initial teacher education and continuing professional development.
Third our focus on equity has to be significantly expanded. In particular, Gauteng continues to face three big challenges: teaching quality is not standardised across schools; learners are not engaged; and schools are not well-managed. To overcome these challenges, Gauteng has a vision of a "paperless classroom", a combination of technologies to address these gaps in teaching quality, learner engagement and school administration.
Gauteng's Vision 2055 aspires to build a world-class education system in 30 years, while the Transformation, Modernisation and Reindustrialisation (TMR) strategy aims to modernise public education and improve the standard of performance of the whole system. Against this vision, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has developed strategies for what a good education system looks like.
Information Communications Technology (JCT) will be a cornerstone of the transformation. This is where we can really make a difference: in enriching school resources. Our belief is that the richer the learning environment in school the better children perform. Teachers clearly need adequate resources to aid them and where these are absent their learners struggle. Where schools have a library, JCT, connectivity and quality teaching resources learners do better.
The GDE JCT and e-education strategy will use technology to improve education outcomes - in particular learner achievement and attainment - rapidly and at scale. It will enhance teaching quality, learner engagement and school administration by training teachers and introducing devices and smart software into the classroom.
The case for JCT in schools and eLearning is clear. Across the world, systems are increasingly using technology to boost their in education results. Targeted technology programmes in a number of countries have seen improvements in attendance, motivation and collaboration. Gauteng has one of the best Matric pass rates in the country. It scores well against Southern and Eastern African countries and the South African average on standardised international assessments. However, standardised test scores suggest that Gauteng lags far behind developed countries.
The availability of such school resources is a crucial dimension of school effectiveness. They are a "threshold" factor that enables effective learning and teaching to develop and flourish.
Clearly enriching resources without dedicated teachers would achieve little. We need a corps of teachers who do what must be done.
Through these efforts the department will advance JCT connectivity and equipment such as iPads/ tablets/ desktops in schools, to enable learners to have access to learning material, workbooks and other subject matter. In enhancing the implementation of the E-Learning programme educators will be trained in the use of the equipment to facilitate teaching and learning in class through the modern technology.
The Department will launch the concept with the "Big Switch on" at five of the selected pilot schools on the 14 Jan 2015. These are mainly the No Fee schools. These schools will experience for the first time state of the art technology to support effective teaching and learning in class. The beneficiaries will mainly be learners from the previously disadvantaged communities.
But Premier, Colleagues and friends,
Concluding remarks
I am grateful firstly to Premier Makhura for joining us today as we congratulate everyone who has played a role in achieving these excellent results for Gauteng, for our learners, and for all within the GDE.
I would like to thank my head of department, Boy Ngobeni.
Gauteng would not be celebrating these results today were it not for the massive team effort of all in head office, and in the education department across the province. Thanks to the examination team under the stewardship of Edward Mosuwe, Reena Rampersad and Prince Masilo. Once again, we have had a clean, successful examination process in Gauteng.
We could not have done it, and we cannot do it without our educators and pri ncipals.
Thousands of you have again in the past year shown your dedication to your profession and to our children, attending courses, participating in our in-service development offerings, upgrading you r management skills, and - most importantly - putting our learners at the centre of your efforts every day.
Thanks to all of you, in the schools and district offices.
Let me also mention the many parents from across the province without whose contribution we would struggle to achieve the successes we celebrate together with you. Your efforts, your contribution to the outcomes we are able to celebrate today prove that our children and our country are best served by constructive engagement from all sides.
Our teachers and your organisations have in 2014 again helped through your constructive approach to make a very important difference to the lives of many, many young people. Thank you.
Which leads me to my thanks to all of the leaders of our teachers' organisations and workers' unions operating within the education sector.
I would like at the same time to thank members of the provincial legislature for their continued support. Together, we have consulted and conferred, charting a route which has consistently seen consensus building as the better alternative to conflict. We have together proven that ongoing consultation does more for the learners who are our reason for existing than any battle or any court conflict can.
Premier,
Colleagues and Friends,
A rise in the Gauteng matric pass rate between 2010 and 2014 from 71% to 84,7% not only represents a 13,7% improvement over five-years. It represents more importantly a promise made to the people of Gauteng that this government would do everything within its power not only to improve education, but to do so consistently and for all of the province's children.
And so, as we near the commemoration of 40th anniversary of June 16, we can say with confidence that government of the people by the people is truly also for and in the interests of the people.
We can join hands as learners, parents, educators, administrators and policy makers and celebrate a victory for our children and our country in the spirit of youth who strived and died in Soweto and across the country and who taught us that education is the foundation on which we must build a just and prosperous South Africa.
I want therefore to send to all of our learners my heartfelt congratulations. You are the builders of our future, we are very proud of you!
To fellow South Africans, as the 5'11 Administration we would like to reaffirm one position, your children are safe under our leadership.
Quality Education will happen in our lifetime.
I thank you.
