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The South African Communist Party (SACP) congratulates the National Senior Certificate (NSC) 2023 class for the improved results in their examinations. At 82.9 per cent, the national pass rate is the highest since our 1994 democratic breakthrough and marks an increase of 2.8 per cent from the 2022 pass rate. The SACP deeply appreciates the hard work of the learners, educators, principals, school governing bodies, parents and guardians, government officials and executive authority, who contributed to the improvement. 

We further welcome the Free State Province’s consistent best performance and major strides made by Limpopo Province. The improvement by 7.4 per cent makes Limpopo the most improved province from the 2022 results. The 4.1 per cent and 3.4 per cent improvements by the Eastern Cape Province and KwaZulu-Natal Province, making them the second and third improved provinces, respectively, are also commendable. 

As correctly noted by Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga in her presentation, basic education is improving in its totality, with only 1 per cent or small differences between most provinces. We need to work together to consolidate these gains and improve further. In this regard, we note that in terms of quality, especially in maths, science and bachelor’s passes, the system is still characterised by deeply concerning disparities, mainly rooted in class and social inequalities. This needs attention as a matter of priority. The inequalities require redistributive interventions, including adequate resourcing to eliminate the conditions that still characterise others as not only previously but still disadvantaged.

KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces, along with Gauteng Province, have large populations of learners and passes by headcount. This is commendable, considering the complexities involved in the governance, management, and delivery of education in systems with large learner populations. Also, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal provinces have large rural communities impacted by the legacy of the long history of racist capitalist underdevelopment. While there has been welcome progress since our April 1994 democratic breakthrough, which marked our hard-won transition from the apartheid regime to the current democratic dispensation, there is a need for greater development attention covering the three and other largely rural provinces, namely Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, North West and Free State, as well as rural regions in both Gauteng and Western Cape provinces. This should form part of the efforts to resource education adequately in previously disadvantaged areas to eliminate inequality in education.     

In Gauteng Province, generally, as the national metropolitan, and more so in the Johannesburg and large parts of the Ekurhuleni metros, there are many learners who are obligated by national curriculum design to take two languages – one home and another also home or first additional language – but neither of which is their African mother tongue, their actual home language. This is a serious problem, considering the essential importance of mother tongue education and disadvantages that come with not receiving it in the schooling system. This is unjust to the consistently disadvantaged South African official African languages, and learners. The national government, through fiscal policy, among others, must pay particular attention to this problem by taking more effective steps. These should include adequate budgetary allocation for teacher training and employment to provide mother tongue education, aiming to eliminate the ongoing disadvantage faced by the excluded South African mother tongues and the affected learners.

In addition, it is of concern that fewer learners wrote the 2023 examination than in 2022. The 23,000 learners’ shortfall must be accounted for. Decisive measures should be undertaken to ensure that the factors behind many learners dropping out of school are addressed.

While matric is important, we all need to emphasise that the education journey does not end with it. As the minister said, matric should not be regarded as the only measure of our education performance. The entire schooling system must fire on all cylinders to improve teacher and learner performance.

Beyond that, continuing with post-school education is crucial in national and human development. The SACP encourages the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation to continue working closely together to further the education and training development of our learners, students and trainees.

Collaborative efforts should include improving and expanding the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector, including through enhanced infrastructure development conditional grants and adequate resourcing to increase the number and sizes of TVET colleges and equip their engineering practical training workshops to match cutting-edge technology and world of work. The improvement should also guarantee high-quality learning and teaching content, along with positive outcomes. It should facilitate vertical articulation of TVET college qualifications across the National Qualifications Framework, allowing seamless continuity for TVET graduates who aspire to pursue further studies towards the highest NQF level without being compelled to commence at an entry level in universities. TVET colleges, programmes and qualifications should in no particular way be perceived as “by the way”, an alternative to university education and training. They must be developed, and rewarded in the economy, to become highly recognised first choices and an essential part of national and human development.

The skills revolution that South Africa needs to turn around its economy and advance broad-based empowerment, including through building a thriving co-operative sector, as well as successful small, medium and micro enterprises, requires a more robust approach and expansion of TVET colleges, programmes and qualifications. According to the census 2011, South Africa had a population of approximately 52 million people, and according to the census 2022, our national population has increased to 62 million people. The size of the post-school public education and training system was small before this national population growth and remains small relative to the population it should serve to meet South Africa’s present and future know-how and skills requirements. Budget cuts, fiscal consolidation or austerity, are not a solution but a problem for the much-needed expansion and must be rolled back if our country is to meet the education and training needs of the people, the majority of whom are working-class and poor.

Last but not least, while we congratulate the class of 2023, it would be remiss of us as a nation to ignore those who did not make the cut. As the SACP, we encourage them to not despair, for there are still many options to pursue in order to further develop themselves in education and training. The options include enrolling in second chance matric opportunities. However, on their own, those who did not make the cut will be unable to pull themselves up. As such, the SACP calls upon our government to develop more effective interventions to end the phenomenon of young people who are either not in education and training or in employment.

Issued by SACP