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SPEECH BY MEC FOR EDUCATION IN KWAZULU-NATAL,
Ms NELISWA PEGGY NKONYENI, MPL, ON THE
OCCASION OF THE RELEASE OF THE 2015 NATIONAL
SENIOR CERTIFICATE RESULTS HELD AT INKOSI
ALBERT LUTHULI INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
CENTRE (ICC), DURBAN, 06 JANUARY 2016
Programme Director
The Honourable Premier, Mr Senzo Mchunu
The Speaker of the KZN Legislature the Honourable Ms Lydia Johnson
My Colleagues and Members of the Executive Council
The Provincial Chairperson of the ANC Mr Sihle Zikalala and entire
Leadership
Chairperson of Portfolio Committee on Basic Education the Honourable
Ms Nomalungelo Gina
Chairperson of the Education Portfolio Committee, Ms Linda Hlongwa
Members of the National Parliament and Provincial Legislature
Mayors
Head of Department, Dr Nkosinathi Sishi
Senior Management of the Department
Principals, Educators and Parents
Our Top Achievers present today
Leaders and Representatives from Organised Labour
Representatives from School Governing Bodies
Faith-Based Organisations, Civil Society, Learner and Student Bodies
Our Social and Business Partners in Education
Members of the Media Fraternity
Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen
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Program Director it gives me great pleasure to announce the
Matric results at the time when the ruling African National
Congress (ANC) government continues to make enormous
strides in achieving one of the goals of the Freedom Charter
which was to ensure that the doors of learning are open to all
regardless of race, colour or creed. This is particularly so with
2015 having seen the 60th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter
and having been declared the Year of the Freedom Charter by
our President, His Excellency JG Zuma.
Allow me, Program Director, to state that presiding over the
education of our young people in the Province of KwaZulu-
Natal is indeed not an easy task but a fulfilling one. It is very
fulfilling because we are developing our youngsters holistically,
as Martin Luther King Jr once said that intelligence plus
character is the goal of true education.
Words of inspiration also reverberated in the speech by
President Zuma when he stated in his State of the Nation’s
Address on 12 February 2015, that “Our youth is our future and
their success fills us with immense pride”.
Program Director on 06 January 2015, I stood at this platform
and informed the audience present then that we as the
Department have adopted altruism, honesty, compassion,
professionalism, fairness, excellence, teamwork and empathy
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as important values to guide our vision and actions. Today as I
stand before you to announce the 2015 Results I would like to
once again reiterate these values because without them we will
not be able to develop our learners into citizens who will really
add value to the success of our country.
Program Director in 2015 the Department experienced a
number of disturbing incidents where our learners and
educators tragically passed on under various circumstances. I
want to pay tribute to all those who passed away last year and
may their souls rest in peace. However, I do want to say that
we have experienced a very horrifying trend where our
educators seem to be murdered as a way for others to ascend
to promotional posts. We want to condemn this foreign
tendency in the strongest possible terms and promise the
perpetrators that the long arm of the law will always catch up
with them, as the Zulu saying says that “Ayikho impunga
yehlathi”, which loosely translated means that you can run but
you cannot hide.
Similarly, we want to strongly condemn the violence that is
meted out against our learners either by outsiders or by their
fellow learners. We are very saddened by the fact that some
young lives perish as a result of this unnecessary violence and
we would like to urge parents in particular, to constantly engage
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their children about issues of violence so as to inculcate a
culture which abhors violence in all its manifestations. If we all
work together to achieve this goal we will be able to establish a
violence-free society and our schools will in turn be free of
violence.
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Compatriots at this juncture allow me to talk about another new
and equally disturbing phenomenon which seems to proliferate
in our societies and has therefore become part of the options
which some of our young people look to, which is suicide.
Some of our learners seem to believe that once they have
failed they have reached the end of the road. All of us as
society need to dismiss this misleading notion because it is not
true. I want to appeal to our learners, that not passing matric
does not constitute the end of the world. There is evidence
showing that many renowned leaders, successful business
people and even celebrities whom our young people hold in
high regard as heroes and role models, failed their matric at
one point or another. However, because they understood that
this was not the end of the world, they did not despair. Instead
they repeated their matric or pursued other ventures to ensure
that they improved their lives despite their not passing matric. I
want to say that as a nation we need to implore upon all our
young people to understand that there is nothing that is worthy
of taking your own life.
When you feel that you have reached the end of the road make
sure that you talk about your predicament to as many people as
possible and soon enough you will begin to realise that your
situation is not insurmountable and therefore not worthy of
destroying your precious life.
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I would like to announce that the supplementary examinations
will be commencing in February with full support from the
Department for those learners who did not do well. Over and
above that the Minister announced yesterday that she will be
launching the Second Chance Programme for learners who did
not pass their matric examinations.
National Development Plan (NDP) Programme Director one of the strategic drivers for the
Department is the National Development Plan (NDP). The
NDP recognizes that the quality of education for most children
is poor. It therefore states that one of the attributes which
South Africa should have achieved by 2030 is quality school
education, with globally competitive literacy and numeracy
standards. All our endeavours, Program Director and
Honoured Guests, strive to achieve the commitments as set out
above.
THE DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET AND THE AUDITOR
GENERAL’S REPORT
Compatriots it is important that I briefly talk about the issue of
the budget so that people can understand the delicate
balancing act that we have to undertake when we implement
our programmes, and therefore begin to appreciate the
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achievements that we are able to record under the
circumstances. The budget which the department received for
2015/16 was R42 billion. 87% of this budget goes to the
Compensation of Employees due to a number of factors, which
leaves only 13% for the delivery of other services.
Coming to the Auditor-General’s Report, firstly I would like to
indicate that over the past couple of years the findings of the
Auditor-General have not been favourable to us. However,
because we were not happy with this state of affairs, we
worked tirelessly to extricate ourselves from this rather
unsettling situation. It is on the basis of these tireless efforts
that today I am proud to report that for 2014-15 Financial Year
the Department obtained an unqualified audit opinion. In
addition to this, the Auditor-General further noted that no
unauthorised expenditure was incurred during that period. Our
ultimate goal is to obtain a clean audit report with no matters of
emphasis raised.
Before I go any further Program Director, let me briefly highlight
some of the departmental programmes which we have
implemented as part of ensuring delivery of quality education
for our learners, which we also count as achievements for
2015, in view of the financial environment under which the
entire country is still operating.
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THE KWAZULU-NATAL EDUCATION SUMMIT
The Department of Education held a very successful Education
Summit on the 24th and 25th of April 2015. This Summit was a
pinnacle of our efforts to strengthen the Quality Learning and
Teaching Campaign in the province. Its deliberations greatly
influenced our allocation of resources in the 2015/16 financial
year. We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to all who
participated including the Members of the Provincial
Legislature, Organised Labour and the Business Sector.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Programme Director under Human Resources we have been
able to fill more than 1700 promotional posts, 141 Circuit
Management and Subject Advisory posts, and 14 Senior
Management posts. One of the key roles for Circuit Managers
is to provide support and to monitor effective curriculum
delivery to allocated schools which in most cases is around 30
schools per Circuit Manager. Subject Advisors on the other
hand are there to enrich capacity and guidance to educators in
the implementation of the curriculum. Lastly to address the
lack of in-house technical capacity within our Infrastructure
section, the Department has advertised and filled a number of
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Technical Personnel posts including Civil Engineers, Quantity
Surveyors, Artisans and Works Inspectors.
OPERATION BOUNCE BACK
Operation Bounce Back is a term which we gave our Provincial
Academic Improvement Plan for 2015 and Beyond. We are
continuously implementing this programme for the next five
years to improve learner performance. Its main objective is to
effect focussed interventions to improve learner performance in
the Province.
PROCUREMENT OF TOOLS OF TRADE
Honoured Guests in response to an outcry about the
unavailability of the tools of trade which was negatively affecting
the performance of our employees, we have purchased 224
vehicles at the cost of R38 million and further utilised R18 million
to purchase printers, desktop computers and laptops during this
current financial year.
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TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Programme Director in her speech delivered during the 2015
Release of Results Function the Minister of Basic Education the
Hon. Ms Angie Motshekga said “the quality of education of any
system is predicated on the quality of its teachers”. In this
regard we conducted a number of Curriculum Management
Workshops for Principals, School Management Teams and
educators, including preparing schools for the implementation
of the new CAPS programme. We are also currently
renovating and upgrading our Provincial Teacher Development
Institute for use as an in-service training facility for both our
office-based and school-based educators.
WINTER AND SPRING REVISION CLASSES FOR
LEARNERS
We also conducted winter and spring vacation classes as well
as boot camps in all Districts which focused on revision of work.
A separate bootcamp was organised at Magudu Lodge in
Ophongolo in Zululand District targeting high flyers from
previously-disadvantaged communities. 240 learners across
the 12 Districts of the province participated in the programme.
Some of the learners who participated in this bootcamp
managed to be in the top five in their respective Districts. I
wish to congratulate all of them but mention in particular
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Lindokuhle Mazibuko from Amangwane High School in
Bergville in uThukela District who obtained nine As. As the
Department we are going to replicate this bootcamp
programme throughout the Province in our endeavour to
reclaim our glory and produce quality results for the Province.
For all the learners who participated in the bootcamp and
managed to do well, we will do our level best to ensure that
they are enrolled at tertiary institutions.
NATIONAL SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMME (NSNP)
Compatriots the NSNP is one of our most important
programmes which contributes to the alleviation of poverty and
also encourages our learners from poor backgrounds to attend
school. The programme currently benefits over 2 million
learners in more than 5000 public schools, in Grades R to 12
which constitutes about 80% of learners of compulsory school
going age who are provided with nutritious meals on school
days. The programme further contributes to the enhancement
of job opportunities within the local communities by contracting
service providers and food handlers.
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INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE
Honoured Guests despite the decreasing infrastructure
allocation the Department completed 10 schools in the 2014/15
financial year. In the 2016/17 financial year, the Department
has 29 new and replacement schools under construction of
which 10 schools are targeted for completion by the end of the
current financial year.
PARTNERSHIPS WITH SOCIAL PARTNERS
Programme Director flowing from our understanding of the
valuable contribution that our social partners have on education,
we have formed partnerships with many organisations involved
in education. To mention just a few we now have
ambassadorship programmes for Maths, Agriculture, and
Accounting. Another programme which has an impact in our
schools is the Jik’imfundo which provides capacity to school-
based Managers and curriculum implementers. There are many
other localised partnerships which we have established which
are making a huge impact in our schools to whom we are very
grateful, but because of time constraints we cannot name them
individually.
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PROCUREMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE 2016 LEARNER TEACHER SUPPORT MATERIAL (LTSM) Compatriots the procurement of LTSM in KwaZulu-Natal is
managed in line with the Basic Education Sector Plan for
LTSM. To that end the delivery of all essential LTSM for the
2016 Academic Year was finalised in November 2015. The first
week of the 2016 academic year will be utilized to deal with any
late LTSM queries from schools.
2015 NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS
Honoured Guests we are presenting to you today quality results
which a free of irregularities and are a true reflection of our
achievement, which will ensure that our interventions are
correctly guided. We have reached this level by ensuring that
Invigilators and Monitors are well-trained and that in cases
where there had been irregularities in the past Resident
Monitors are placed. We want to thank the whole team for
making a concerted effort to avert irregularities.
The Class of 2015 is the second cohort to seat for the
Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement-aligned National
Senior Certificate examination. This cohort started grade 1 in
2004. The group was part of the curriculum transformation
processes which saw the revision of policy and introduction of
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new curriculum statements such as the Revised National
Curriculum Statement (RNCS), and National Curriculum
Statement (NSC). The group reached the FET phase when the
Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) were
implemented at grade 10, 11 and 12.
The National Senior Certificate examination started on 19
October 2015 and concluded on 27 November 2015. This is the
largest group to seat for the National Senior Certificate
examinations in the province with 162 658 full time candidates
as well as 30 000 part time candidates.
Overall performance of the province
Honoured Guests, the province of KwaZulu Natal obtained
60.7% in the 2015 National Senior Certificate examination. Of
the 162 658 candidates who sat for this examination 98 761
passed the examination. This was an increase from the 97 144
learners who passed the same examination out of 147 739 in
2014. The achievement of these candidates includes Bachelor
passes which allow a learner to enrol at a university, Diploma
passes which makes learners eligible for studying at University
of Technology, Higher Certificate and National Senior
Certificate passes which gives learners an opportunity to study
at a Technical Vocational institution (TVET College).
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Historically the province has produced more than a million
passes in the National Senior Certificate Examinations since
2004. The quality of passes in 2015 shows that the province
obtained more Bachelor and Diploma passes than the Higher
Certificate and National Senior Certificate (NSC) passes.
Evidence to this is that 98 762 Candidates who passed in 2015,
34 751 obtained Bachelor passes and 39 799 obtained Diploma
passes against 24 181 Higher Certificate and 31 NSC passes.
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District performance
The Districts performed as follows:
District Wrote Achieved Pass %
Amajuba 9217 5415 58.75
ILembe 9141 4747 51.93
Pinetown 20098 12993 64.65
Sisonke 6985 4380 62.71
UGu 11910 7177 60.26
UMgungundlovu 13218 8986 67.98
UMkhanyakude 14054 8810 62.69
Umlazi 21648 15726 72.64
UMzinyathi 10047 4679 46.57
UThukela 11095 6778 61.09
UThungulu 18360 10023 54.59
Zululand 16885 9047 53.58
All the 12 districts declined from their 2014 National Senior
Certificate pass percentages. The declines are from 1.94% to
12.75%.
The ranking of districts according to their pass numbers shows
that the three districts (Umlazi, Pinetown and UThungulu)
passed more than 10 000 candidates each.
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Zululand passed more than 9 000 candidates. UMgungundlovu
and UMkhanyakude passed more than 8 000 candidates each.
UGu passed more than 7 000 candidates. UThukela passed
more than 6 000 candidates. Amajuba passed more than 5 000
candidates. ILembe, UMzinyathi and Sisonke passed more
than 4 000 candidates each.
Programme Director, our focus as the Department in 2016 will
be on the large key subjects which declined in 2015. These are
Accounting, Agricultural Sciences, Business Studies,
Economics, Geography, History, Life Sciences, Mathematics
Mathematical Literacy, and Physical Sciences.
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Despite the declines in large key subjects, the performance of
the Province shows that the number of passes was satisfactory.
This is illustrated as follows:
Subject
Description 2015 Wrote 2015 Achieved
Accounting 39671 20430
Agricultural
Sciences 22463 16427
Business Studies 69615 48097
Economics 41626 25291
Geography 78898 54674
History 39930 31766
Life Sciences 86927 56718
Mathematics 85057 28265
Maths Lit. 79549 45871
Physical Sciences 50163 25988
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Performance in Home Languages
All the 6 home languages performed well as follows:
Number of passes in large key subjects
Subject Description 2015 Wrote 2015 Achieved 2015 Pass Rate
Afrikaans Home Language
858 842 98.14%
English Home Language
28986 26311 90.77%
Sesotho Home Language
38 38 100.00%
SiSwati Home Language
478 471 98.54%
IsiXhosa Home Language
3387 3365 99.35%
IsiZulu Home Language 131690 130989 99.47%
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Progressed Learners
The Department had a responsibility to provide support to
10 070 progressed learners. We are proud to announce that
our targeted interventions bore fruit in the sense that we were
able to pass 47% of these learners as follows:
PROGRESSED LEARNERS
PROGRESSED LEARNERS 10 070
ACHIEVED 4 765
BACHELORS 1 541
DIPLOMAS 1 879
HIGHER CERTIFICATES 1 344
NSC (SCHOOL LEAVING) 1
PASS % 47.3%
Provincial pass rate including progressed learners 60.7%
Provincial pass rate without progressed learners 61.6%
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Program Director allow me to extend the words
of gratitude to the following: my organisation the African
National Congress particularly the Health and Education Sub-
Committee convened by Comrade Lydia Johnson; the
Executive Council of KwaZulu-Natal, the Provincial Legislature,
(in particular the Portfolio Committee on Education, the Finance
Portfolio Committee and the Public Accounts Committee),
Organised Labour, School Governing Bodies and Parent
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Associations; the officials from Head Office to District level as
well as all our Educators and all our stakeholders for the
support which they have all given us to ensure that despite the
challenges that we experience as the Department of Education,
we are still able to execute our mandate of providing quality
education to our learners. To them I want to say that without
your support we would not be able to perform our duties
adequately. However, to those officials of the Department who
are still not performing at an optimal level we are going to act
decisively to remedy the situation.
We also want to make a clarion call that education is and still
remains a societal issue. We should all ensure that we all
make a contribution towards the improvement of culture of
learning and teaching in our Province.
I would also like to thank my family for their continued support
and understanding of the odd hours that I have to work to
perform my duties. Their support in this regard is invaluable.
Lastly but not least, to all the learners in the province, I want to
say 2016 has started. You must hit the ground running so that
you are assured of success. To those who did not pass matric
I say do not despair, for this is not the end of the road for you.
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Pull yourselves up with your bootstraps and soldier on like
many pioneers before you.
To the top achievers gathered here today I want to say that the
sky is the limit for you. The journey that you have started is an
assured journey to success. We all have faith and confidence
in you because you have demonstrated that you have the
capacity and capability to perform and achieve at the highest
level. Take the baton and run with it. At this juncture I wish to
quote Francesca Lia Bloch when he said “If you want to find the
trail, if you want to find yourself, you must explore your dreams
alone. You must grow at a slow pace in a dark cocoon of
loneliness so you can fly like wind, like wings, when you
awaken”
“Recognise that there is something amazing about you.
Everyone has something that comes very natural for them –
natural gifts and talents. That gift/talent is that thing or things
that come easy for you, but hard for most. The greatness that
was stored within was given to you because it was meant to be
used. Whether you have been running from it or haven’t
discovered it yet, it’s here. It’s your job to discover and master
it. It wasn’t given to you in vain, it’s part of your purpose.” So
said Yvonne Pierre.
I THANK YOU