The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) warmly welcomes the 2012 matric results and congratulates the matric class of 2012 for the good performance, the teachers and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) on achieving a national matric pass rate of 73.9%, an improvement of 3.7 % from 70.2% in 2011. “This year on year improvement demonstrates a gradual commitment by the youth to improve their lives, to become active citizens and to contribute to the socio-economic growth of the country. Let us therefore do everything in our power to help them achieve their greatest potential. Of equal importance in the on-going efforts by the DBE to improve the quality of education which is evidently bearing fruits,” says NYDA CEO Steven Ngubeni.
Importantly it is through a collective effort by learners, teachers, parents, civil society bodies and teacher unions that we can continue to improve the performance of our learners throughout the schooling system. Ngubeni says in light of the vast numbers of learners who will want to further their studies, more resources are needed to improve the capacity and quality of institutions like the Further Education and Training Colleges (FET’s). “For their necessary technical focus, FET college capacity and quality must be improved, they must become serious alternatives for further education and we must help and encourage young people to enrol in these institutions, however this will become successful if the quality of their curriculum is improved. All of this is necessary if we are to build a technical skills base among young people preparing them for the labour market, while alleviating the pressure on Universities and Universities of Technology,” he says.
The NYDA is also calling on matrics who were unsuccessful this year not to despair as there are a variety of options they can explore. In due course the NYDA will communicate details of a variety of programmes it will be undertaking aimed at assisting young people with career guidance information, bursaries as well as matric re-write, including its annual Start Here campaign and Matric Second Chance programme aimed at giving failed matrics a second chance.
Further details on these programmes will be published on the NYDA website and other media. Once again a hearty congratulations to the 2012 Matric Class, a world full of great opportunities awaits you.
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