Statement on National Senior Certificate 2016 results
Thursday, 5 January 2017
The South African Communist Party welcomes the improved National Senior Certificate pass rate of the class of 2016. The SACP congratulates the government, all learners who have passed and all teachers who have done good work, and expresses its sincere gratitude to organised workers in general and the South African Democratic Teachers Unions (Sadtu) in particular for its resilience and efforts at ensuring that there is improvement.
Sadtu was attacked severely in 2016, from different angles, but remained focused on the goal of education. The SACP pledges its continued support to the union in driving quality teaching and learning and in tackling the political attacks directed at it.
The overall improvement is 1.8 percent from 70.7 percent in 2015 to 72.5 percent in 2016. Although this is still lower than the pass rate of 2014, 75.9 percent, the improvement is critical on a number of fronts. There are more learners who wrote the National Senior Certificate examinations in 2016 – i.e. 828 020, up by 28 020 from 800 000 in 2015. There are also more learners from rural areas and townships who have passed in 2016.
The SACP also welcomes the steady improvement in mathematics and science, 33 511 learners achieved 60% or more in the subjects in 2016, which is 3 197 more than in 2014 (30 314), including the fact that more African learners achieved 60 percent or more in mathematics in 2016 compared to 2015. This indicates that progress is steadily underway towards the realisation of the principle of equal education, though no doubt there is more work that needs to be done both in education and in the economy.
But we need more than the Department of Basic Education, schools and teachers working together alone in order to succeed as a country in executing the work. The whole of the state, parents and society must play their role. The economic and social conditions of rural areas and townships, and the learning and teaching environment both at school and at home, including learning and teaching resources and assistance available to learners are still inferior compared to those in upmarket suburbs and historically White communities.
The consequent pressures facing teachers and differences in the number of learners weigh heavily on teacher and learner performance and outcomes. Schools in upmarket suburbs and historically White areas have less of those pressures and fewer learners per class while learners in these areas are surrounded by libraries for example both at school and in the community as opposed to disadvantaged areas.
In addition, because of class and income family positions it is learners in advantaged areas who are exposed to extra classes with individual attention paid for by their parents. These and other factors continue to influence the difference in provincial results, which must be understood in a proper context.
It is important for the Department of Basic Education to take all these factors into account and ensure curriculum transformation based on content that is responsive to the developmental needs of our society and the need to solve its problems including through innovation. Curriculum development must equally importantly be sensitive to inequality, particularly the imperative to adequately resource the under-resourced.
The SACP wishes to say to the learners who have not passed, that this is not the end of the road. Neither is it the end life. It is always important to try again; repetition is still the mother of learning, while it is equally important to explore new alternatives.
To all learners the SACP says while universities are important they are not the only option. Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges are equally important and too do provide student development to a successful future.
Statement issued by the SACP, 5 January 2016
