Against all odds, the Eastern Cape’s grade 12 pupils in 2023 improved their matric pass rate to an unheard of and amazing 81.4% from 77.3% in 2022.
This big and beautiful improvement in the grade 12 results is the outcome of a concerted joint effort by parents, teachers, pupils, government, communities, guardians, and a number of private organisations that joined forces to improve performance of our matriculants.
Over the years, our province was lingering at the bottom of the table with poor fluctuating matric results attracting unlimited ridicule and had the unenviable record of always being the worst-performing provincial education department.
As we committed ourselves to improve both the quality and quantity of our grade 12s, like-minded individuals and companies threw their weight behind our efforts as the government.
Inspired by the Freedom Charter’s commitment to ensuring that education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children, the ANC’s 2009 elections manifesto committed to ensure the progressive realisation of universal schooling, improving quality education and eliminating disparities.
As we made education one of our top priorities, we were mindful of the challenges facing pupils, schools and communities in our province, hence we committed to major renewal of our schooling and education system.
In 2009, the province recorded a 51% pass rate for our grade 12s.
This is why we are over the moon when the class of 2023 gives us this beautiful pass rate of 81.4%, the highest for our province.
I am excited that the largely rural districts of Alfred Nzo East and West, Chris Hani East, top the provincial performance charts with more pupils obtaining top grades.
It is amazing that the grade 12 pupils that wrote the matric examinations in 2023 were still at preschool when the ANC prioritised education and committed to improve schooling in 2009.
Over the years, a number of government administrations in the province invested about R225.6bn in school infrastructure, grant funding to schools, teaching, learning, school nutrition, learner and teacher support material to ensure the realisation of our manifesto commitments.
Because of these investments, we are able to provide the much-needed support to all public schools through subsidies, grant funding and funds allocated to the needs of each our schools.
When I tabled the maiden state of the province address at the beginning of the current sixth administration term of government in 2019, I said: “In our education targets for this term, we prefer quality outcomes [rather] than quantity, hence our focus will be on improving outcomes in maths, science, accounting, technology and tourism.”
Furthermore, I said that going back to below the 70% mark for our grade 12 results was not an option.
The results of the class of 2023 show that the work we continue doing as the government, ANC structures together with pupils, schools, parents, communities, teachers and social partners is yielding good results in our province.
In celebrating these much-improved Eastern Cape grade 12 results, I want to appreciate the contribution by former deployees of the ANC, parents, communities, teachers, social partners, Sadtu, the national and provincial departments of basic education, particularly the late former MEC Mandla Makupula, current MEC Fundile Gade and his team in prioritising the education of our children.
While we still have a lot of work to do in implementing this manifesto commitment, we must use these improved results to celebrate the results of our collective work and to plan how best to address challenges facing the education system.
One of our priority areas is to work together with families, pupils, teachers, law enforcement agencies and communities to attend to the causes of school dropouts throughout the education system.
For us as the province to grow and develop, continue giving more people a better life, we must keep our children at school, skill and empower them to obtain higher education qualifications so that they can start their own businesses, get the jobs of their dreams and contribute in building our province to be a better place.
The broader provincial collective working in the education sector has a duty to up the ante in fighting drug abuse, use and selling of drugs in our schools, because this criminality affects schooling and takes some of our children out of the education system, robbing them of their brighter future.
For us to win the war, we must design a comprehensive learner, parent, community, teacher and school supporting system to ensure that no drugs are sold or used in our schools.
As we continue improving our education system, we will always be guided by Nelson Mandela’s wise words that: “It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education.
“Those who do not believe this have small imaginations.”
Our province registered this much-improved performance because of sacrifices made by our teachers at schools, parents who are actively involved in the education of their children, communities that support local schools through initiatives such as Operation Fukama, committed department of education officials, traditional leaders, private sector and civil society organisations, that invest their resources in the education of our children, and the education portfolio committee of the provincial legislature.
The stability in the relationship between the provincial department of education, teachers and their unions contributed to this remarkable historic matric outcome we are celebrating in the province.
These are some of the things we have to sustain for the benefit of our children and for the realisation of the manifesto commitments we have made to the people of our country.
An improvement in education outcomes is a direct response to our skills development and serves as a catalyst to the socioeconomic trajectory of our province
Mabuyane is the premier of the Eastern Cape and the provincial chair of the ANC.
HeraldLIVE
Hard work bears fruit with record East Cape 2023 matric results
Image: 123RF/OLEGDUDKO
Against all odds, the Eastern Cape’s grade 12 pupils in 2023 improved their matric pass rate to an unheard of and amazing 81.4% from 77.3% in 2022.
This big and beautiful improvement in the grade 12 results is the outcome of a concerted joint effort by parents, teachers, pupils, government, communities, guardians, and a number of private organisations that joined forces to improve performance of our matriculants.
Over the years, our province was lingering at the bottom of the table with poor fluctuating matric results attracting unlimited ridicule and had the unenviable record of always being the worst-performing provincial education department.
As we committed ourselves to improve both the quality and quantity of our grade 12s, like-minded individuals and companies threw their weight behind our efforts as the government.
Inspired by the Freedom Charter’s commitment to ensuring that education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children, the ANC’s 2009 elections manifesto committed to ensure the progressive realisation of universal schooling, improving quality education and eliminating disparities.
As we made education one of our top priorities, we were mindful of the challenges facing pupils, schools and communities in our province, hence we committed to major renewal of our schooling and education system.
In 2009, the province recorded a 51% pass rate for our grade 12s.
This is why we are over the moon when the class of 2023 gives us this beautiful pass rate of 81.4%, the highest for our province.
I am excited that the largely rural districts of Alfred Nzo East and West, Chris Hani East, top the provincial performance charts with more pupils obtaining top grades.
It is amazing that the grade 12 pupils that wrote the matric examinations in 2023 were still at preschool when the ANC prioritised education and committed to improve schooling in 2009.
Over the years, a number of government administrations in the province invested about R225.6bn in school infrastructure, grant funding to schools, teaching, learning, school nutrition, learner and teacher support material to ensure the realisation of our manifesto commitments.
Because of these investments, we are able to provide the much-needed support to all public schools through subsidies, grant funding and funds allocated to the needs of each our schools.
When I tabled the maiden state of the province address at the beginning of the current sixth administration term of government in 2019, I said: “In our education targets for this term, we prefer quality outcomes [rather] than quantity, hence our focus will be on improving outcomes in maths, science, accounting, technology and tourism.”
Furthermore, I said that going back to below the 70% mark for our grade 12 results was not an option.
The results of the class of 2023 show that the work we continue doing as the government, ANC structures together with pupils, schools, parents, communities, teachers and social partners is yielding good results in our province.
In celebrating these much-improved Eastern Cape grade 12 results, I want to appreciate the contribution by former deployees of the ANC, parents, communities, teachers, social partners, Sadtu, the national and provincial departments of basic education, particularly the late former MEC Mandla Makupula, current MEC Fundile Gade and his team in prioritising the education of our children.
While we still have a lot of work to do in implementing this manifesto commitment, we must use these improved results to celebrate the results of our collective work and to plan how best to address challenges facing the education system.
One of our priority areas is to work together with families, pupils, teachers, law enforcement agencies and communities to attend to the causes of school dropouts throughout the education system.
For us as the province to grow and develop, continue giving more people a better life, we must keep our children at school, skill and empower them to obtain higher education qualifications so that they can start their own businesses, get the jobs of their dreams and contribute in building our province to be a better place.
The broader provincial collective working in the education sector has a duty to up the ante in fighting drug abuse, use and selling of drugs in our schools, because this criminality affects schooling and takes some of our children out of the education system, robbing them of their brighter future.
For us to win the war, we must design a comprehensive learner, parent, community, teacher and school supporting system to ensure that no drugs are sold or used in our schools.
As we continue improving our education system, we will always be guided by Nelson Mandela’s wise words that: “It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education.
“Those who do not believe this have small imaginations.”
Our province registered this much-improved performance because of sacrifices made by our teachers at schools, parents who are actively involved in the education of their children, communities that support local schools through initiatives such as Operation Fukama, committed department of education officials, traditional leaders, private sector and civil society organisations, that invest their resources in the education of our children, and the education portfolio committee of the provincial legislature.
The stability in the relationship between the provincial department of education, teachers and their unions contributed to this remarkable historic matric outcome we are celebrating in the province.
These are some of the things we have to sustain for the benefit of our children and for the realisation of the manifesto commitments we have made to the people of our country.
An improvement in education outcomes is a direct response to our skills development and serves as a catalyst to the socioeconomic trajectory of our province
Mabuyane is the premier of the Eastern Cape and the provincial chair of the ANC.
HeraldLIVE
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