Statement on National Senior Certificate 2016 results
Thursday, 5 January 2017
The South African Communist Party welcomes the improved National Senior Certificate pass rate of the class of 2016. The SACP congratulates the government, all learners who have passed and all teachers who have done good work, and expresses its sincere gratitude to organised workers in general and the South African Democratic Teachers Unions (Sadtu) in particular for its resilience and efforts at ensuring that there is improvement.
Sadtu was attacked severely in 2016, from different angles, but remained focused on the goal of education. The SACP pledges its continued support to the union in driving quality teaching and learning and in tackling the political attacks directed at it.
The overall improvement is 1.8 percent from 70.7 percent in 2015 to 72.5 percent in 2016. Although this is still lower than the pass rate of 2014, 75.9 percent, the improvement is critical on a number of fronts. There are more learners who wrote the National Senior Certificate examinations in 2016 – i.e. 828 020, up by 28 020 from 800 000 in 2015. There are also more learners from rural areas and townships who have passed in 2016.
The SACP also welcomes the steady improvement in mathematics and science, 33 511 learners achieved 60% or more in the subjects in 2016, which is 3 197 more than in 2014 (30 314), including the fact that more African learners achieved 60 percent or more in mathematics in 2016 compared to 2015. This indicates that progress is steadily underway towards the realisation of the principle of equal education, though no doubt there is more work that needs to be done both in education and in the economy.