MATRIC RESULTS ARE A SYMPTOM OF AN UNEQUAL AND RACIALISED EDUCATION SYSTEM
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) wishes to congratulate all the sons and daughters of the working class who passed their Matric examinations in 2009. We also congratulate the whole class of 2009 for the efforts and energy they have put into their schooling year and examinations.
Numsa also takes this opportunity to wish all those who are proceeding into institutions of higher learning and further education successful studies. We encourage those that have adequate marks to take up studies in engineering and allied disciplines so as to address the shortage of skills in these fields.
Numsa through our efforts of consolidating working class power for peoples' education will in 2010 be assisting approximately 78 learners from the families of Numsa members to further their studies through the Mbuyiselo Ngwenda Bursary Fund.
We encourage all those who have not made it not to despair, but to explore all possible avenues to rewrite their exams.
As Numsa we are encouraged by the increase in the number of candidates who have registered for Matric exams which was 552,000 compared with 533,000 for the previous year 2008.
We are however concerned about the decline of pass rate to 60.6% when compared with previous years. The results are a symptom of an unequal and racialised education system entrenched and fostered in our society through disastrous and failed neo-liberal policies post the 1994 democratic breakthrough. The working class and poor communities' suffer from unequal distribution of resources - their schools are over-crowded, they are short of educators, they have inadequate learner support material, uneven allocation and distribution of resources, learners receive education on empty-stomachs, inappropriate safety measures in schools and inadequate support and training of educators as compared to opulent and suburbia schools. All these contribute to the collapse of the culture of learning and teaching in mainly working class and poor communites schools.
This calls on the ANC-led government and civil society to pay a particular attention in improving the quality of our education system as resolved in the ANC Elections Manifesto commitments priorities of improving the education in the country. This should be done consistent with our battle cry of building peoples' power for peoples' education geared towards meeting the developmental goals of our country as dictated by the working class and the poor.
In memory of Joe Slovo lets us all recommits ourselves in building an education system that is free from the whims of the market and the capitalist logic. Lets build an education system that will safeguard and consolidate the revolutionary gains of 1994.
Statement issued by Castro Ngobese, NUMSA national spokesperson, January 7 2010
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