SADTU statement on matric results
22 February 2021
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) welcomes the 2020 National Senior Certificate (Matric) results. The decline in the pass rate, compared to the 2019’s 81,3%, does not come as a surprise following the disruptions experienced in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 Class deserves our outmost praise for enduring the most challenging year.
SADTU commends all the stakeholders, more especially the teachers and learners who gave their all to prepare and write this crucial examination under difficult conditions. We are however aware that some learners withdrew from their studies and therefore did not write the examination due COVID-19 fears.
More praise goes to the rural, township and no-fee paying schools for attaining the most quality passes – a continuing trend. These schools who suffer due to lack of resources were the hardest hit by COVID-19 as they had little or no access to blended learning opportunities and therefore could not continue learning from home during lockdown. When schools eventually opened, learners from these schools could not easily adjust to the new COVID-19 environment as their schools could not meet all the COVID-19 protocols.
As we commend the continuous improvement of results in these schools, we are fully aware of the fact that this has come at a huge prize. Teachers had to conduct catch up lessons over weekends, holidays, early mornings and late afternoons to teach and prepare the matric class for these examinations. However, going an extra mile has become a norm for teachers and learners in these schools as they have to compensate for the inadequate resources they have. The current post provisioning model puts learners in poorer communities at a disadvantage. We therefore call for an equitable funding formula so that we can see poorer schools receiving more resources. Individual school needs should be taken into account when budgeting.