Mrs Thembeni KaMadlopha Mthethwa, MPL
IFP KZN Provincial Spokesperson on Education
The IFP in KwaZulu Natal congratulates the KZN class of 2019 for the remarkable improvements in the overall matric results of the province for 2019. Well done matric 2019!!!
This is but an improvement that is long overdue. KwaZulu Natal has previously tasted the 80% plus mark, and later regressed. The IFP congratulates our educators in the province, the learners, the parents, the department and everybody else who was involved in one way or another towards the improvement of our results in the province, and for taking us back to where we belong. Whilst congratulating the whole team, we also do want to say, it is not yet Uhuru.
The IFP has always maintained that education is key to peoples’ development. Hence our motto during the dark days of apartheid: “Education for liberation”. Whilst the country and the province have improved on quantity, the issue of quality passes still remain great cause for concern, especially amongst the lower quintile schools of our province. In order to redirect the focus of our education to where the actual problems are, the curriculum must be focused to where the economic and industrial needs are in order to address high levels of unemployment. As things stand for now, our country is producing matric passes that merely add to the unemployment percentage of the country due to a mismatch in the curriculum.
It remains great cause for concern that the high number of bachelor passes still comes from the quintile 4 and 5 schools of our province, with the quintiles 1, 2 and 3 schools steadily improving. The important phase of our children’s lives, the beyond matric phase, is still going to be more accommodating to the previously advantaged, yet relegating many of the previously disadvantaged learners to the second and third class positions of life, because of the type of matric passes they have. The universities will still be flooded by bachelor passes from the quintile 4 and 5 schools. This means that NSFAS will still be misdirected to those who needed it, but not the ones who needed it the most, because most of them will be in the Tvet colleges, which are under-funded by our government. The skewed funding of least funds and least resources to Tvet colleges must be adequately addressed in order to create a necessary balance.
The IFP hopes that 2020 will be a year of quality improvements in our education system. We also hope that the issues of the safety of educators and learners in our schools will be vigorously attended to by the authorities. We note with concern that the promised total migration of ECD from Social Development to Education (with immediate effect) still remain an unfulfilled promise, hoping that this will be entirely delivered in 2020.
Otherwise, the matric class of 2019, really made us proud of our province. Bravo, matrics 2019!!!!
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Contact:
Mrs Thembeni KaMadlopha Mthethwa, MPL
IFP KZN Provincial Spokesperson on Education
079 114 3015
