Eastern Cape matrics remain at the bottom of the 2016 class despite registering a remarkable improvement compared with the previous year.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the official results last night which confirmed that 59.3% Eastern Cape matrics passed, compared with the previous year’s 56.8% pass rate.
“It’s true the Eastern Cape has improved by 2.5%,” education director-general Matanzima Mweli confirmed last night.
Indications the province would remain at the bottom of the 2016 class were there as early as June last year when a 6% drop was recorded from the first quarter to mid-year exams.
The national performance has also improved by 1.8% to 72.5% in 2016. Topping the list is the Free State with 88% of their matrics having passed.
The second top performer is the Western Cape at 85%, followed by Gauteng. At the bottom is Eastern Cape followed by Limpopo, Mpumalanga as well as Northern Cape at position seven, compared to other provinces, Motshekga announced last night.
Reacting to the news, education portfolio committee head at the Bhisho legislature Fundile Gade said what was commendable “is the fact that the province is one of those which registered improvements”.
“I understand that four provinces, including Limpopo, are on a downward trend but the Eastern Cape is among those that have improved. That’s significant,” Gade said.
South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) provincial spokesman Sindisile Zamisa said the union was very concerned the province remained the poorest performing in the country, and said this was due to the state’s failure to do things differently.
The 2016 school year was marked by several setbacks across districts, including the crisis of a shortage of teachers in Port Elizabeth district’s northern areas which resulted in disrupted schooling for most of the first term.
Similar disruptions occurred in Libode and Elliotdale due to service delivery protests.
Another challenge which continued to affect schooling was the never ending dispute between the department and unions over the number of vacant teaching positions.
The dispute was only resolved late in January last year, after the department agreed to declare 1665 more posts to be filled. Meanwhile, only half of the 23 districts have directors, as 12 of these posts remain vacant.
Zamisa said there was an ongoing dispute over the number of vacant posts and a meeting to resolve those disputes would only be held today at Stirling teachers’ centre.
“That is what is at the heart of this province’s poor performance. I’m not saying that’s the only root cause, but there can’t be learning if there is no teacher to teach,” Zamisa said.
Gade said the committee was also aware of the vacancies, and it was high time premier Phumulo Masualle intervened to speed up the process of addressing these challenges.
The department introduced several intervention programmes last year to help improve the matriculants’ performance.
These included the roping in of retired teachers to help with extra lessons, while 200 schools benefited from a digital teaching programme which enabled pupils to ask questions online.
But Zamisa said that too did not materialise optimally.
“When you decide to support only 6200 schools – some of which have no teachers for certain subjects – how is that going to help?”
Gade said his main concern was the delays in rolling out these intervention programmes.
A non-government organisation focused on education challenges, Equal Education, yesterday said rural provinces such as the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo recorded pass rates well below the national average compared with Gauteng and the Western Cape because they had the most under-resourced and poorest schools.
“The Eastern Cape is a large predominantly rural province with most of its schools from the former homelands of Transkei and Ciskei,” Equal Education said in a statement yesterday.
lIt is not all doom and gloom for those who do not appear in the Daily Dispatch today, reports Mbali Tanana.
National matric examiner and education specialist Dr Bukiwe Mbilini-Kuze said many artisans who failed matric, went on to earn good wages or even run their own small businesses.
Many economically secure or even wealthy plumbers, electricians and mechanics, had not needed a matric pass to get the skills they needed to do well.
“There is a need for artisans. If going back and repeating your subjects is a challenge, consider going to an FET or vocational school and obtain an NQF level in a broad variety of career options made available there.”