SADTU on 2019 matric results

7 January 2020

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) congratulates the learners, teachers, parents, examiners, markers and the department of basic education for the 2019 matric results.

All the stakeholders, from business to faith based organisations played a major role towards the improvement; teachers however remain the mainstay of the system and their levels of productivity dictated to by their work conditions are directly proportional to the outcomes that we today celebrate as a country.

These good results have been made possible largely through huge sacrifices from both the learners and teachers who spent holidays, weekends, early mornings and late afternoons preparing for the examinations. The improved results that we welcome today as a country are a direct consequence of the dedication and commitment that educators put in.

We are of the view that the exorbitant additional support programmes around the Grade 12 class can be avoided if the Department of Basic Education invests more resources in strengthening Early Childhood Development and the Foundation phases.

Quality early childhood and foundation phase education provide firm bedrock for learners to sail through in higher classes. SADTU therefore calls on the Department of Basic Education to increase its investment in these phases by providing resources, developing teachers and treating them with the respect they deserve as professionals. Currently, teachers in these phases are treated as sub-teachers in terms of their conditions of service and are treated differently from one province to the next even in terms of compensation.

Pitying provinces against each other:

As we welcome the results, we call on the Department of Basic education and the media to desist from making the results a contest among provinces. South Africa consists of one basic education system whose intention is to support our developmental goals as a country.

For equality and real transformation to be achieved in our society, matric results should not be reduced to a mere annual statistical intra-provincial competition. The dynamics that have a direct impact on the educational outcomes vary vastly from one province to the next.

As a matter of fact, the uneven performance between provinces is very much a direct reflection of the country’s socio-economic actualities.

The Provinces and Districts that perform below par are largely rural and are on the back-foot in respect of the delivery of basic amenities such as libraries, sanitation, laboratories and learning materials in some cases.

Even the current post provisioning model disadvantages poorer schools and condemns the learners, their families and concerned communities to a possible life of poverty.

SADTU has been consistently calling for revised post-provisioning and school funding models particularly for poorer schools as part of the radical redress policies to be implemented in the system.

SADTU is not opposed to competition but one should compare apples with apples. The playing fields are not even and the evidence is there for all to see.

As the largest union of education, we take our hats off to the educators particularly in the rural and township schools who have to work extra hard to ensure that their learners complete the matric year and their overall schooling journey successfully.

As we celebrate that the system is stabilising and that more and more people now have access to formal education, let us spare a thought for the teachers who go to their workplaces to deliver what is expected of them as professionals despite a less than supportive environment, an environment in which some are not even guaranteed their safety given the recent spike of violence in schools against our teachers.

Results analysis:

Although the 2019 class performance is an improvement from 2018 in terms of percentages, we are however disappointed with the decline in the number of learners who took critical subjects like Mathematics, Economics and Life Sciences.

We are equally disappointed with the low pass rate in these subjects. The improvement in the learner performance in Geography, Physical Science, Accounting and Mathematical Literacy provides us with little or no comfort, as pursuing further studies in these subjects requires Mathematics.

We believe the poor performance in these critical subjects is due to the lack of a firm foundation hence our call for increased investment in the foundation and early childhood development phases.

A good foundation in basic education will go a long way towards ensuring that learners are able to choose critical subjects like Mathematics and Accounting.

This will ensure that the matric certificate is not just a certificate but quality. SADTU believes in quality as it allows learners to interpret information, be critical thinkers and well-rounded individuals.

The issue of language also has an impact in the mastery of Mathematics. As long as the majority of learners in South Africa are still not being taught in their home language, learners will continue to struggle. Home language assists cognitive development across the board including Maths and Science.

We are disappointed by the decline in the pass rate in home languages including Afrikaans. Even though it is negligible, we cannot afford this decline as language is of critical importance in the decolonization of education. More effort should be made to develop additional teachers with the relevant proficiencies in home languages particularly those of African origin.

Performance of rural, township and no-fee paying schools

We commend the poor no-fee paying schools that fall in the Quintile 1 to 3 categories for rising against all odds to account for 55% of total bachelor passes. Judging by the bare and meagre resources these schools have, sheer dedication and determination propelled them to attain these quality passes.

KwaZulu Natal, a largely rural province, received the highest number of learners with bachelor passes. These quality passes further vindicate SADTU whose members teach in these schools. Teachers are subjected to teaching overcrowded classrooms with meagre resources but they have managed to ensure learners receive quality passes.

The union’s work, including the Matric Intervention Programme in the province which targeted poor performing schools, has paid off.

Further, it is heartening to note the increase in the number that learners who are social grant recipients who have passed. The figure increased from last year’s 70,3%. This shows that resources have a positive impact in the education system. These children will now enroll at institutions of higher learning and change their trajectory and that of their families for the better forever.

Way forward

For those who didn’t make it, we encourage them to register for the second chance programme. We call on the Department of education to provide resources and contact sessions for this programme, as these learners still need support.

We commend the Department of Social Services for providing a hotline (0800428428) to give counselling to matriculants who are anxious about the results. We call on the Department of Basic Education to embrace this hotline and assist matriculants with information on opportunities that are available for further studies or second chance programmes for those who didn’t make it.

We also call on the Department to increase its investment in extra-curricula activities in schools, more especially in rural and township schools as these enable the learners to be well-rounded individuals.

We are aware that not all learners are academically inclined but believe they can strive in sports and the arts provided they are given the opportunity. It is high time that Department broaden its scope and look at the learners individual capabilities and develop these. We believe this will have some impact in reducing the number of learner dropouts and repetitions.

The results have again confirmed our strong view that the so-called equitable share formula for education funding has not been able to deal with the stubbornness of the apartheid legacy in terms of infrastructure and resources in the rural provinces. The equitable share formula must change if we are to increase the resources in the rural areas.

The individual school needs must be the basis for budgeting. If we delay changing this, the public education system will soon be creating a fertile ground for agents and allies of capitalism with their crusade of accumulation by dispossession. Those who are ready to privatize public education and other public services would use the results to justify their profit making motives.

We must stop the privatisation of education by providing infrastructure to all public schools, create a safe environment in the public schools and ensure that rural learners and teachers have the same resources and to do this.

Access to educational material for the poor and less advantaged should be a top priority for our government. As the President will be leading the “Reading Revolution” campaign, we are calling on him to the sign as a matter of urgency, the copyright amendment bill into law; a transformative and legislative framework that will increase access to educational materials. This will benefit the creators, authors, schools, archive and libraries. The bill has been on the table for nine months now and this is unjustifiable.

The government spends a significant amount of its annual education budget on the Learning & Teaching Support Material with only a few publishing companies getting the lion’s share of the budget.

We call upon President Ramaphosa not to be threatened by USA sanctions for doing the right thing.

Whilst the education system is clearly improving and stabilizing, we still need to focus on the important inputs that we must make collectively into the system. The educational infrastructure, the continuous professional development programmes for teachers, delivery of LTSM on time, favourable work conditions for teachers, administrative support especially in poorer schools to help teachers with the work load etc, are just some of the most consequential investments that we need to make into the system.

We want to encourage the learners who have completed their schooling journey to also consider the vocational streams of further training and learning in the form of TVET colleges. South Africa is a skills deficit country and for our developmental goals to be achieved we will need the skills to match.

As we start this academic year, we are once again calling for all South Africans to rally behind our “#I AM A SCHOOL FAN” campaign. Through this campaign, we will mobilise all of society to work towards ensuring safer schools for our learners and teachers.

For the system to continue stabilizing and improving as it did last year, the teaching profession should not be viewed as dangerous. It must be able to attract new professionals who are willing to contribute meaningfully towards the developmental goals of the country.

Issued by Nomusa Cembi, Media Officer, SADTU, 7 January 2020