Many grade 12 learners do not cope with the pressures of preparing for the matric exams
Against all odds, Eastern Cape’s 2023 grade 12 learners have improved their matric pass rate to an unheard of 81.4%, from 77.3% in 2022.
This big and beautiful improvement is the outcome of a concerted joint effort by parents and guardians, teachers, learners, the government, communities and a number of private organisations, which joined forces to boost the performance of our matriculants.
Over the years, our province was at the bottom of the table, with poor, fluctuating matric results, attracting criticism, and had the unviable record of always being the worst performing provincial education department
As we committed ourselves to improve both the quality and quantity of our grade 12s, like- minded individuals and companies threw their weight behind our efforts as the ANC-led government.
Inspired by the principle enshrined in the Freedom Charter that education “shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children”, the ANC’s 2009 election manifesto committed to achieving universal schooling, improving the quality of education and eliminating disparities.
As we made education one of our top priorities, we were mindful of the challenges facing learners, schools and communities in our province.
In 2009, the province recorded a 51% matric pass rate. This is why we were over the moon when the class of 2023 gave us a laudable 81.4% pass rate, the highest ever for our province.
I am excited that the largely rural districts of Alfred Nzo East and West and Chris Hani East topped the provincial performance charts in the Eastern Cape with more learners obtaining top grades.
It is amazing that the grade 12 learners who wrote the matric exams in 2023, whose results we are celebrating today, were still in pre-school when the ANC prioritised education and committed to improve schooling in 2009.
Over the years, a number of ANC-led government administrations in the province have invested about R225.6 billion in school infrastructure, grant funding to schools, teaching, learning, school nutrition and learner and teacher support materials to ensure the realisation of our manifesto commitments.
Because of these investments, we are able to provide much-needed support to all public schools through subsidies and grant and other funding.
When I tabled the maiden state of the province address at the beginning of the current sixth administration term of government in 2019 I said: “In our education targets for this term, we prefer quality outcomes to quantity, hence our focus will be on improving outcomes in maths, science, accounting, technology and tourism.”
Furthermore, I told the people of our province that going back to below the 70% mark for our grade 12 results was not an option.
The results of the class of 2023 show that the work we continue doing as the ANC-led government, together with learners, schools, parents, communities, teachers and social partners, is yielding good results in our province.
In celebrating these much-improved Eastern Cape grade 12 results for the 2023 academic year, I want to voice my appreciation of the contribution by former deployees of the ANC; parents; communities; teachers; social partners; the South African Democratic Teachers Union and the national and provincial departments of basic education, particularly the late former MEC Mandla Makupula and current MEC Fundile Gade and his team, in prioritising the education of our children.
While we still have a lot of work to do in implementing our manifesto commitment, we must use these improved marks to celebrate the results of our collective work and to plan how best to address the challenges facing the education system.
One of our priority areas is to work together with families, learners, teachers, law enforcement agencies and communities to attend to the causes of learners dropping out — in our entire education system, not only at the grade 12 level.
For us as a province to grow and develop, continue giving more people a better life, we must keep our children at school, skill and empower them to obtain higher education qualifications so that they can start their own businesses, get the jobs of their dreams and contribute to building our province to be a better place.
The broader provincial collective working in the education sector has a duty to up the ante in fighting drug use and the selling of drugs in our schools because this criminal activity affects schooling and takes some of our children out of the education system, robbing them of a brighter future. For us to win the war, we must design a comprehensive learner, parent, community, teacher and school support system to ensure that no drugs are sold or used in our schools.
As we continue improving our education system, we will always be guided by Nelson Mandela’s wise words that: “It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education. Those who do not believe this have small imaginations.”
Our province registered this much-improved performance because of sacrifices made by our teachers, parents who are actively involved in the education of their children, communities that support local schools through initiatives such as Operation Fukama, committed department of education officials, traditional leaders, private sector and civil society organisations, that invest their resources in the education of our children, as well as the ANC-led education portfolio committee in the provincial legislature.
The stability of the relationship between the provincial department of education and teachers and their unions contributed to this remarkable outcome we are celebrating in the province. It is important that we sustain this high standard for the benefit of our children and for the realisation of the manifesto commitments we have made to the people of our country.
An improvement in education outcomes is a direct response to our skills development and serves as catalyst to the socio-economic trajectory of our province
Mabuyane is the premier of the Eastern Cape and the provincial chairperson of the ANC.