SASCO Response to 2013 Matric Results
On behalf of the students of South Africa we would like congratulate the class of 2013, we are proud of the 78.2 % pass rate, the best since the advent of our democracy. The hard work and dedicated commitment to studying has paid off for those who have performed well. We also acknowledge the 'against all odds' attitude of those learners who succeeded regardless of the poor state of their school infrastructure, lack of resources and other constraining factors.
We wish from the onset to encourage those who did not succeed not to give up, but to recommit themselves to their studies in 2014. SASCO welcomes all those who will be joining our institutions of higher education and training. Those who were members of COSAS must find a home in SASCO together with those who were not exposed to student politics before. SASCO will be your First Friend on Campus.
To us it comes as no Christmas present that yet again learners who wrote the Independent Examination Board assessment recorded a 98.5% pass rate with 85% of this qualifying for Bachelors admission. This to us is the reality of the sad story of the inequality inherent in our education system. The IEB represents the education for the rich and is a preservation of white supremacy in our country.
It is a sad tale that twenty years into our democracy we still have an education system that represents the legacy of Apartheid racialism and class inequality. In as munch as we celebrate with those learners who performed well in these exams we cannot hold back our disgust at the reality this exposes. Maybe our late Nelson Mandela can submit in his report to Langalibalele Dube, Pixel ka Seme, Albert Luthuli, Walter Sisulu and OR Tambo, that twenty years since the democratic breakthrough the Apartheid legacy of segregation and deprivation lingers on.
We say this fully aware of the attacks we will endure from the defenders of white supremacy and Apartheid apologist, who will say we are anti-quality and ignorant. We welcome these attacks for they make us strong in our resolve to build a single public education system and abolish the commodification of our education. We will not retreat with our sister organization, COSAS, to fight for Compulsory Free and Quality Education; the struggle continues. We call on the ANC government to build an equal quality education of all regardless of race, gender or class. It cannot be acceptable that white learners and the co-opted few children of the black elite in South Africa receive quality education whilst the black working class and poor majority are left to their devices, this is exactly what Apartheid was designed to achieve, and unfortunately this reality lives on 20 years into our democracy.
SASCO wishes to join the country in celebrating this achievement of 78.2% pass rate of 2013. We wish to congratulate all stakeholder especially the learners, teachers and more particularly our sister organization the Congress of South African Students'. We salute COSAS because we know that they have been on the trenches ensuring that our learners receive a quality education. We note the almost 60% pass rate for Mathematics and the 67.4% for Physical Science. This represents the improvement in the quality of our passes. We are encouraged by the increase in bachelor passes especially in quartile 1 to 3 schools; this is a clear indicator of progress. We believe that a lot more work needs to be done to improve our education system. For us this should present a moment for all South Africans especially those in the education sector as a whole to recommit themselves to transformation. We expect our teachers to go an extra mile to ensure that the child of the working class and poor receives quality education.
SASCO notes the 35 000 increase in bachelor passes, yet we caution learners and their parents not to be misled to think that this will guarantee admission to universities. We make this caution because we know that there is no real articulation between basic education classifications and the ridiculous admission requirements of our universities. We commit never to stop until access to education is universal. Our cadres are ready and posted across institutions to fight for access of these students. We call on all our institutions in particular our ivory tower white universities to open space for these learners into our post schooling system. We call on our government to ensure that public higher education and training institutions accommodate these students. We call for co-operation during this period; we call on institutions to desist from closing out prospective students from entering campuses to enquire about spaces and admission. It is expected that we will have walk-ins with this record improvements in results. We know that in the main it will be poor students especially those from rural schools who will be visiting our campuses looking for spaces. Universities must be willing to assist and accommodate these students through late applications since most of them did not have the information or the resources to apply in time. In future our institutions must make an effort to visit rural schools as part of their information and recruitment drive.
We join our sister organization, COSAS, in their call for government to stop publishing examination results. We believe this only serves the purpose of increasing the profits of media companies at the expense of learners. It put unnecessary pressure on learners and exposes them to public ridicule. It is a pity that the Minister has not acted on this call immediately but has decided to engage in a fruitless exercise of commissioning an enquiry on an issue so clear. We wish to ignore the prophets of doom who refuse to find any good in the work of the ANC led government. They should talk to the hand; we are busy building a better South Africa for all. We call on all cadres of the movement not to be complaisant but to focus on improving on the work achieved over the past twenty years.
We further call on our government to provide free education for all in further education and training as well as universities now, as we know that majority of these learners will not find space into tertiary institutions, and others who succeed in securing such, will not have the financial means to study and better their lives, since education is reduced to the control and abuse of markets. We call on institutions to open gates for all qualifying first years to find space in these institutions, and do away with academic capping which undermines gains of our democracy. Institutions of higher education learning should ensure that all these first entrants are fully supported to succeed in their academic endeavour and student life. To all educational stakeholders we salute your hard work and commitment, stronger together.
SASCO is ready to ensure that it becomes the First Friend on Campus of all our students. We are committed to ensuring a successful Right To Learn Campaign.
Statement issued by the NEC of SASCO, January 7 2013
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