SACP welcomes improved matric results
Statement, 4 January 2018
The South African Communist Party congratulates all Grade 12 learners who wrote the 2018 matric examinations, passed and thus qualified to obtain their National Senior Certificate. Successfully completing schooling is worth a celebration because it is progress! The SACP welcomes the fact that overall National Senior Certificate results not only remained above 70% but improved by 3.1% from 75.1% in 2017 to 78.2% in 2018. The SACP salutes the Department of Basic Education, provincial education departments, teachers and the South African Democratic Teachers Union, school governing bodies, parents and other partners in basic education for working hard to achieve the improvement.
Development is not an event. It is a process. It requires hard work and zeal amidst populist and opposition destructive criticisms with no contribution whatsoever – and motivated by nothing except the lust for power. Such criticism deliberately does not notice any improvements. However, on the other hand the Department of Basic Education and government at large should welcome constructive criticism and material support. As the Department of Basic Education itself correctly recognises, there is a lot of work that still needs to be done to improve the quality of the results and ensure that every learner from the foundation phase completes schooling successfully and meritoriously.
On this note the SACP urges learners who did not make it not to despair. There are many alternatives both to completing schooling successfully and to success through education and skills training. The Department of Basic Education and provincial education departments still have work to do to support learners who did not make it, while the Department of Higher Education and Training offers alternatives, among others through Sector Education and Training Authorities.
The National Senior Certificate results still reflect the persisting legacy of uneven development and distribution of resources between, on the one hand historically disadvantaged areas, particularly rural areas, informal settlements and townships in varying extents, and on the other hand well off areas. This is a reflection of the class inequalities that require a scientific outlook on development, underpinned by comprehensive, balanced and sustainable approaches and robustly equitable distribution of resources anchored on eliminating inequality, poverty and unemployment.
The SACP urges learners not only to focus on furthering higher education through universities but also technical and vocational education and training through Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges.
Issued by the SACP, 4 January 2019
