ANC CALLS FOR URGENT ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS THAT LED TO MATRIC PASS RATE DROP

6 January 2015

The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal has called on all education stakeholders to urgently conduct a thorough diagnosis of the factors that have affected the province's matric performance.

"We have noted the decline from 77.4 percent to 69.7 percent and we regard this as a temporary setback which should be dealt with as a matter of urgency so that our province can continue being among the best performers in the country.

It has already been pointed out that one of the factors that led to the decline may have been the fact that some teachers and learners did not quickly become accustomed to the new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). Although the implementation of CAPS may have contributed to our matric pass rate decline, we have no doubt that this is a good curriculum which has already brought about handsome dividends and there are clear signs that it will take our education system to greater heights.

We therefore call on all education stakeholders to conduct an urgent analysis of all the factors that led to our pass rate decline and put measures in place to ensure that we increase our pass rate. Increasing the pass rate is possible because the ANC-led government has since 1994 invested heavily in education which has resulted in major improvements in many areas of our schooling system," said ANC provincial secretary, Sihle Zikalala.

The ANC congratulated KwaZulu-Natal for being second best province in the country in terms of the number of candidates qualifying for Bachelor studies. "The ANC congratulates the education department led by Cde Peggy Nkonyeni, all educators, parents and the class of 2014 on this sterling achievement. We are also pleased that six districts achieved a pass rate of more that 70 percent with Umlazi District achieving the highest pass rate of 77.28 percent. Serious support must be provided to Ilembe and Umzinyathi districts which scored less than 60 percent."

Statement issued by Sihle Zikalala ANC KwaZulu Natal Provincial Secretary, December 6 2014

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