ANC Western Cape Statement on the 2017 Matric Results
5 January 2018
ANC in the Western Cape welcomes the 2017 Matric results as announced by the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga and would like to congratulate the Overberg district for being in the top 10 performing districts in the country. Given the fact that Overberg is largely rural, the performance is remarkable.
We also wish to congratulate Janke Van Dyk from Bellville High School for being the top achiever in Quintile 5 schools in the whole country. Although our provincial performance remains relatively high at 82.7%, the ANC is concerned about the 3.2% drop and the fall to third place.
Moreover, the ANC is more concerned about the fact that of the 91 299 learners who enrolled in Grade 9 in 2013, only 54 355 enrolled for Grade 12 during the first ten days of the academic year and only 51 987 sat for the exam. This means that 40.46% of all learners who enrolled in Grade 9 in 2013 dropped out or are still stuck in the system.
More shocking is the fact that when looking at the school enrolment rates over the last four years for Grades 9 through 12, on average 12 314 learners dropped out of school or cannot be accounted for.
We are therefore of the opinion that the Western Cape Government’s intention to amend the Western Cape Schools Act - a move heavily criticized by all in education- will contribute to this already dire situation and not solve it.
The Provincial Government’s plans to introduce an evaluation authority with the intention of bringing back apartheid-styled inspectors has no developmental purpose and will instead antagonize the already fragile relationship between the education department and teachers.
We call on the Western Cape Provincial Government to work with all stakeholders in the sector to ensure that the problems identified above are addressed so that learners remain in the system and not drop from it.
The ANC in the Western Cape will continue our campaign to ensure that all children in the Province have equal access to services and resources and we call on the Western Cape Education Department to address the disparities between rich and working class schools in relation to infrastructure, ICT, science labs and libraries.
We congratulate all the matrics of 2017 for their stellar performance with the overall percentage pass of 75.1%, from 72.5% in year 2016.
We encourage the matriculants of 2018 to dedicate themselves from the beginning of the year for better results at the end of the year.
Statement issued by Faiez Jacobs, ANC Western Cape Provincial Secretary, 5 January 2018
