CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE 5 January 2014 RELEASE OF THE 2014 Grade 12 RESULTS The Congress of the People (COPE) congratulates all learners who studied long and hard to produce outstanding results in the 2014 grade 12 examinations. We also congratulate South Africa’s dedicated teachers who supported such Learners through their school years. We are proud of the Provinces that continue to perform well. As for the Provinces that did not, it is time for National Government to take decisive action in the interest of educational equity. For South Africa to successfully redress our past and to achieve its vision of a better life for all it must ensure that our educational system produces skilled youth who will benefit themselves, their families and the economy of our country. Whilst much has been done most will agree that our education system continues to fail our youth and that therefore much more still remains to be done. In this regard COPE expresses its concern at the number of students who dropped out of the system, voluntarily or through culling, before reaching Matric. Furthermore, COPE expresses its concern at whether our Matriculation results signify solid grounding in the national curriculum. Our biggest concern relates to inadequacies in Mathematics, Science, Economics and Business Studies. Our educational system for a long while is pushing young people through a system of education that perversely prepares them for a life of unemployment and poverty. We know that the majority of learners do not have the requisite skills that our troubled economy urgently and desperately needs. COPE recalls that in 2009, government set a target to obtain 175 000 bachelors passes by 2014. We note that this target is being met. For that we are grateful. The announcement by Umalusi of group copying raises deep concerns. It points manifestly to nothing less than an incipient ‘institutionalised’ and sanctioned cheating. Cheating and falsifying CVs has become a matter of national shame. Government must leave no stone unturned to root out this cancer. Educators who are implicated in this matter must, after proper due process, be dismissed from service. Our education is burdened enough by other serial failures and we cannot countenance wilful cheating! COPE also believes that universities should test incoming students independently, to determine whether the results obtained in the final year at school reflect accurately their preparedness for tertiary education. The Grade 12 certificate must be worth substantially more than the paper it is written on for it to be credible. Now that we are meeting certain minimum targets, COPE believes that the time has come to deal with structural, curricular, and accountability issues that have been held in abeyance for too long. Issued by: Deidre Carter(COPE DGS and MP)
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 17:29:38 +0000