ANC YOUTH LEAGUE APPALLED BY STATE OF BASIC EDUCATION

The African National Congress (ANC) Youth League is deeply concerned about results of the Department of Basic Education's second annual national assessments. The state of our learners' mathematics and literacy abilities means that the goal of achieving economic freedom in our lifetime is challenged. How can we achieve economic freedom when our future leaders have difficulty reading, writing and counting?

The ANC Youth League has always maintained that education and skills development are basic propellers required for the attainment of Economic Freedom in our Lifetime. As articulated at the 24th National Congress of the African National Congress Youth League, we believe that more emphasis has to be placed on access to quality education and the development of entrepreneurial skills amongst young people.

While we welcome that there have been improvements in Grades 1 to 3, the shocking reality is that the Department also reported that in terms of Numeracy/Mathematics for Grade 9, a mere 2% of learners achieved above 50%. In a society where we have such a high unemployment rate, we cannot be impressed by achievements of above 50%. We should be promoting excellence and we call on the Department of Basic Education to shift gears in improving state of our basic education.

The Department says it presents the results as a diagnostic tool for intervening in the education system and we request for a comprehensive plan with real targets so we can evaluate performance against these next year in order to ascertain real progress made. We are a nation in crisis if we are failing our children in the provision of basic education.

Statement issued by the ANC Youth League, Office of the Acting President Cde Ronald Lamola, December 4 2012

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