Address by the Honourable Premier, Thandi Modise and the Honourable MEC Maphefo Lucy Matsemela on the occasion of the release of the 2013 matric results on 07 January 2014
Programme Director;
Honourable MEC of Education,
Colleagues in EXCO,
Members of Parliament and of the Provincial Legislature,
Leaders of political parties,
the Executive Mayor of the Bojanala Platinum District Municipality and Councillors, Archbishop Zondo,
Bishop Matebesi,
Leadership of National Interfaith Council of South Africa (NICSA),
Teachers Unions,
Vice Chancellor (designate) of North West University, Prof Kgwadi,
Association of Governing Bodies,
Superintendent-General, Dr Molale,
Senior Managers of the Department,
officials and members of the administrative corps,
the academia,
the media,
Learners and parents, comrades and friends:
Greetings from Team Education. We meet here today to release the results of a very special cohort of Grade 12 learners. This cohort started their schooling in Grade 1 in 2002 and completed Grade 12 in 2013.
In the words of our late former President Tata Mandela: “It always seems impossible until it’s done”. We always manage to get our strength and power from his words to continue with the mammoth educational task. We can now agree that in 1994, the task may have looked impossible but now in 2014, when we celebrate our 20th year of democracy the task no longer looks impossible, we now view education only as a challenge.
In this 20th year of democracy the majority of the 2013 Grade 12 learners are the so called ‘Freedom Children’ or ‘born frees’ as they were born in 1995 when South Africa was already liberated from the shackles of apartheid to become a democratic country. It is indeed a privilege and an honour to be granted the opportunity to announce this historic results of the SECOND ‘born free’ group: the 2013 matriculants who’s also the sixth group of Grade 12 candidates who wrote the National Senior Certificate. It is indeed a privilege and honour to be granted this opportunity.
As Education is a societal issue this is applicable to the entire community. We are striving to create opportunities for all our children to get a proper education as: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.as so aptly said by our beloved Tata Madiba. We want to ensure that the world is changed into a place where everybody is treated with dignity and equality and where human living standards are being improved daily.
The 2013 academic year commenced with the monitoring of the re-opening of schools. At that time many of our schools were geared to provide lessons on the very first day of schooling and we look forward to the same trend next week when schools re-open for 2014.
Let all of us acknowledge that education is one of the priorities of government, we must not politicise it, but we must work together to achieve more out of our collective efforts. The Action Plan to 2014 that is aimed towards the realisation of Schooling 2025 sets out 13 goals related to learning and teaching which are to be achieved by the system. Additionally it sets out 14 areas in education which need to be improved upon in order to reach these goals.
In the 2013 Education Departmental Budget Speech clear instructions were issued which aimed at assisting and securing a better future for North West children. In the State of the Nation Address by the Hon President Zuma on 14 February 2013, he reiterated that the Government had declared education as an apex priority in 2009. He further stated that: “We want to see everyone in the country realising that education is an essential service. It means that we want the education sector and society as a whole to take education more seriously than is happening currently. All successful societies have one thing in common – they invested in education. In elevating education to its rightful place, we want to see an improvement in the quality of learning and teaching and the management of schools. We want to see an improvement in attitudes, posture and outcomes. Working with educators, parents, the community and various stakeholders, we will be able to turn our schools into centres of excellence”.
An article in September 2013 by Minister Chabane, Minister in the Presidency for Performance, stated that the people of South Africa gave the current administration the mandate to deliver against its priorities which include education, health, the fight against crime and corruption, rural development as well as job creation. He continued to say that the Government was indeed making progress and that life has changed for the better for the people of South Africa since 1994. He noted that education has recorded great progress against own targets set. This includes an increase in the percentage of children attending Early Childhood Development facilities, and more than double an increase in Grade R enrolment to 705 000 in 2011 as opposed to 300 000 registered in 2003.
The percentage of Matric pass rate increased from under 60% in 1994 to 73% in 2012. I can add that North West Grade 12 pass rate increased from 50% in 1997 to 79,5% in 2012 and in 2013 we managed to achieve the excellent pass rate of 87.2%.
In his article Mr. Chabane further reported that the Annual National Assessment (ANA) were showing strengths and weaknesses of the educational system in grades below Grade 12. He stated that we needed to do more in order to get value for money and to improve the quality of education, and amongst others, teacher performance and school management will be critical in this regard. In the State of the Province address on 22 February 2013 I stated that: “One of the challenges we have in the province, which was highlighted in the 2012 ANA, was that we are the worst off in the country when it comes to literacy and numeracy in Grades 3, 6 and 9”. To this end I can report that I am delighted that North West shows good progress when the 2013 ANA results are compared to the 2012 ANA results. In one instance the Grade 3 Setswana Home Language was previously in position 11 of the 11 official languages and has improved to position 5, from an average percentage mark of 44.3% to 52.9%. Unfortunately the results also shows that the biggest weakness still lies in Grade 9, as also pointed out by Minister Motshekga on 5 December 2013 when she announced the 2013 ANA results.
Implementation of CAPS (Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement) started in 2012 in the Foundation Phase as well as Grade 10. In 2013 the implementation rolled out also in the Intermediate Phase and Gr. 11. In 2014 CAPS will be fully implemented in the Senior Phase and Grade 12. This will bring new challenges for the 2014 academic year.
Recent policy reviews and policy statements acknowledge the considerable successes South Africa has experienced in improving access to basic education. The average highest school grade completed for a 20-year-old South African improved from 9.5 grades in 1995 to 11.2 grades in 2009. South Africa’s performance, with respect to access to schooling, is close to the best amongst the middle-income countries.
Whilst there is a small gap that must be closed in respect of compulsory schooling, and while we want to see more learners completing Grade 12 successfully, insufficient access to schooling is no longer the primary challenge facing South Africa. Rather, it is the quality of learning outcomes, where South Africa’s performance is the lowest amongst all middle-income countries. This is a challenge that we must confront head-on.
Further, in an effort to ensure improvement in our education system, the National Department of Basic Education (DBE) conducted the Annual National Assessment (ANA) tests in September 2012 and again in 2013. DBE also developed and distributed national workbooks for schools to ensure teacher and learner development. Unfortunately the ANA results, although improved, indicate that in our province, there is still a great deal that needs to be done in order to improve the basic education system. There is no room for excuses; we must make education work for the development of our province. We have already developed and implemented an Improvement Plan for the General Education and Training (GET) band.
The Improvement Plans for 2014 will be in schools on re-opening (which is on the 13th of January 2014 for teachers and the 15th of January for learners). Gone are the days when we focused only on matric results at the expense of other grades. As part of the School Improvement Plans (SIPs), targets will be reviewed and adjusted by all schools during this month. The target setting process started at provincial level determining provincial targets, the districts followed and in the end the schools set their own targets. Principals and managers will account quarterly on the achievement of these targets.
