MEDIA STATEMENT
BY THE
INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
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Inkatha Freedom Party Statement By: MR ALFRED
MPONTSHANE MP 28 December 2007 The Inkatha Freedom Party would like to congratulate all matrics who successfully passed their final exams in 2007, despite all the challenges they faced this year. The education system was crippled by a month-long teacher strike in June, and a disorganised catch-up plan left learners with a massive hill to climb ahead of their final exams. We are therefore extremely proud of all of the learners who overcame these challenges and matriculated. The small decline in the pass rate of 2007 is no surprise to the IFP. Passing matric today can be compared to taking out a long-term insurance policy with no immediate benefits. This is evident from the high number of first year failures at university level, while recent studies have indicated that South Africa's schools are some of the worst in Africa. The unfortunate truth is that the education in South Africa has failed many matrics in 2007 and the lack of quality education, the low levels of literacy and numeracy, and the inadequate training of teachers, remain extremely worrying factors. Therefore, the IFP believes that in 2008 our focus should be on better quality education at all levels of schooling, and that there should be a stronger emphasis on better support systems for all learners. Furthermore, the IFP maintains that there is no education system in the world that is better than its teachers. Therefore we call on the Education Department to invest more resources in 2008 into training good, dedicated, loyal, committed, professional teachers. Finally, the IFP would like to say to those who did not make the grade in 2007 not to give up, but to try again. The IFP hopes that these learners will recommit themselves to their studies in 2008 and rewrite matric next year. Education is the tool to a brighter future. |