7th January 2010

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) today said that the disappointing matric results released this morning are a clear indication that the education system is in a state of crisis. 

"Whilst the IFP would like to extend its congratulations to those matric students who have passed their Senior Certificate examinations, today's results must be a wake-up call to government that urgent steps must be taken to address the critical shortcoming within our education system," said Mr Alfred Mpontshane, the IFP's education spokesperson. 

In spite of a massive 20% of our budget being spent on education, public education continues to fail our children year after year. 

"Our matrics are failing in large numbers; this is happening not because our children have suddenly become less intelligent, but because under the present system there is a scarcity and uneven or erratic distribution of resources and the management of the whole education system is structurally dysfunctional.  The machinery required for our children's education has become inefficient," said Mpontshane. 

Mpontshane said that the IFP has always been a strong critic of government's failed OBE experiment. "An entire generation has now been educated with this disastrous curriculum and today's results, which revealed a dismal performance of South African matric pupils in maths and physical science, proves that the education system has failed the test," said Mpontshane. 

Significant interventions are now needed, especially in a province such as the Northern Cape, which has recorded a shocking 11% decline in its pass rate. 

"To get our education system back on track we must now go back to the basics of education. Poor teaching, especially in rural areas, remains a critical problem and we are therefore again calling on government to reopen teacher training colleges in 2010. Teacher training must become our main priority if we want to stem the downward trend in our overall pass rate. We also call on government to ensure that other shortcomings such as lack of basic resources are dealt with before schools reopen later this month," added Mpontshane. 

Mponthsane added that part of an education turn-around strategy must focus on primary school teaching and the behaviour of teachers at primary and high school level. 

"There is currently is serious neglect of primary school education which must be addressed as a matter of urgency. If we don't get education right at primary school level we will never be able to improve our matric pass rate," said Mpontshane. 

Mpontshane concluded: "Lastly, the IFP believes that the time has come that teachers are held accountable for their actions. The IFP has constantly decried the politicisation of our teachers, which has seen teachers abandoning classrooms for party political activities. The valuable teaching time lost due to strikes and political campaigning no doubt also contributed to today's disappointing results."