Students who did not pass their matric results should not give up hope, said the African National Congress on Tuesday.
”We say to those who did not pass all their subjects and will sit for supplementary exams in February and March, work hard for success; never give up hope that you can succeed,” ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte said in a statement.
”Education is a process and success is not a once-off event, but a series of steps and we urge you to try again.”
On Tuesday, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said the country’s 2008 matric class received a pass rate of 62,5%. In 2007 it was 65,2%.
Of the 533 561 candidates with a full set of results, 333 681 candidates, or 62,5%, met the requirements for a national senior certificate.
Duarte said that along with being the first group to sit for a national exam under the new national curriculum, the 2008 matriculants comprised the largest number of students to sit for the matric exams in the country’s history.
”We recognise this as progress towards developing the foundations that will lead to skilled people in our country.”
Duarte said the at least 107 462, or 20,2%, of students who achieved potential university or university of technology entrance represented a ”mark of progress”.
”Education remains the centre of everything we will do to ensure that we achieve a developmental state with the requisite numbers of skilled people.”
She said the ANC was working with the government to study the results and ensure that issues such as student’s language skills and the difficulty level of one mathematics paper were addressed.
”We will ensure that our budget in the next year accommodates the need for providing infrastructure that creates an environment conducive
to learn and teach within.”
On Tuesday the Young Communist League said it was concerned about the number of matric failures.
” We are concerned that there is no improvement in the failure rate; more than 200 000 learners have failed and this is the same margin as that of the previous year,” said spokesperson Castro Ngobese in
a statement.
He said the Department of Education should support students to re-write their examinations as full-time students in public schools.
”The Department of Education should not outsource this responsibility to the highest bidder in the market.”
The YCL said there were many socioeconomic problems this year which had affected the working class and the rural poor.
”This year … will be remembered [for] the militant students’ protests against academic and financial exclusions in institutions of higher learning, the steep and ballooning rise of learner pregnancies and school violence, especially in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.”
He said school-feeding schemes and access to transport for students in rural areas were eroded by the high cost of living and fuel prices.
ANC Youth League spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said they would help both those matriculants who had passed and those who had failed.
The league would go to communities to talk about post-matric study options and bursary opportunities. It would also ensure that it opened opportunities for those who had failed.
”This will be through mobilising these learners into vocational training programmes, national youth service, entrepreneurial development and re-writing of the national certificate examinations.”
The league was concerned about teachers and administrators who were responsible for the late submission of results.
Freedom Front Plus education spokesperson Willie Spies said the results did not indicate the success or failure of the new system or government policy.
He said the ”exceptional” results of the Independent Examinations Board would draw parents who could afford to, to send their children to private schools.
”Government should see this as an opportunity rather than a threat and utilise private, community and home education as partners, rather than enemies in the fight for better education.” – Sapa