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30 December 2008

The Honourable Premier
Members of the executive council
Director General of the Province
Members of the provincial legislature
Heads of department
Other distinguished guests
Our prize winners
Members of the media corps
Ladies and gentlemen
Leaders of the teacher unions
Associations of school governing bodies (SGB)

Good morning

I am especially pleased to be here with you this morning to announce the results of the 2008 National Senior Certificate examination for the province of the Eastern Cape.

We have gathered here today to celebrate the achievements of the class of 2008.It is entirely appropriate that we should do so. But before announcing this year’s results, it would be fitting to remind you that this is indeed a very historic occasion. Last year we bade farewell to the old curriculum, the National Association for Tertiary Education for Deaf (NATED) 550 curriculum, which had been a feature of our education system, in various forms, since 1948. It was characterised by discriminatory practices and the systematic “dumbing down” of the majority of our people. The phasing out of NATED 550 was indeed long overdue.

This year we celebrate a major milestone in the transformation of the country: the completion of the first phase of the transformation of the education system. This year the first group of learners completes their schooling under the new curriculum. Halala! This is truly something to celebrate. We congratulate them and all those who have worked so tirelessly to transform our apartheid inheritance. We have walked a long path on this journey, and I want to remind you that educational change does not occur overnight. By its very nature, changing almost every aspect of an entire education system is a process, not a once off event. Long before the democratic government’s first heady days in office, education was identified as a key to the future. The ANC government in waiting had been preparing vigorously to transform the hated Bantu Education. However, logistical issues and questions of access and equity took priority in the first years of government. In 1997, having completed the amalgamation of the old apartheid systems of education in this country, we embarked on a process of developing and phasing in the new curriculum statement informed by Outcome Base Education (OBE). In particular in this part of the land we also faced an amalgamation of two homeland systems, House of Representatives, and ex Department of Education and Training (DET). These have posed a number of challenges in terms of standardising schooling.

Curriculum experts, teachers and officials from all over the country converged in Pretoria and spent months collaboratively developing a new curriculum. This new curriculum was based on the outcomes-based model. Much has been said about OBE that it doesn’t work, that it needs massive resources and that it has failed elsewhere. OBE is not rocket science, in its simplest terms it wants to start at the end point of learning and specify what we would like a learner to know and be able to do at the end of a period of learning. These are the outcomes. We write them down, dissect them and know exactly what is expected. We then work backwards to say what and how do we need to teach the learner in order to enable him or her to be able to demonstrate that they can do what is expected of them when we have finished teaching in other words, they achieve the outcome. This is not undesirable. Indeed we all believe that you cannot embark on a journey one which is so costly and time consuming, if you don’t know where you want to go and how to get there.

Our previous curriculum pumped learners full of meaningless “facts” which were said to be important. Learners were never asked to demonstrate the use of these “facts” but merely to regurgitate them in examinations. Many of these so-called “facts” we were taught were not “facts” at all, they were falsehoods deliberately taught to us. To sight a few:

* that Van Riebeeck discovered the Cape
* that the Voortrekkers trekked into an empty land
* that Shaka and Dingane were ruthless murderers of innocent people.

I am sure if we were to ask our esteemed top achievers here today, they would indeed confirm and demonstrate that OBE has taught them to think and not to recite; that they have to do things to show what they know and not simply recite meaningless facts.

However, the process of transforming the system at all levels has not been without its challenges. We have tended to both over-simplify and to over-complicate matters in our country and our new education system did not escape both of these. We were too optimistic in the beginning and believed that a whole new curriculum and a new way of teaching would simply be welcomed and embraced and that no matter how complicated we assumed that teachers, learners, parents and the broader community would understand the need for change, embrace the new system and implement it. Key to the challenges was, and is, the capacity of teachers to translate the policy and methodology to make an impact in the classroom and make our learners to succeed.

That was incorrect and much work has had to be done to slowly to transform this massive system at all levels through out our country. With acknowledgement of such challenges, we are implementing teacher training program during school holidays as part of the Premier’s turnaround plan initiative. Indeed, we believe that for educators to implement the new curriculum will require considerable support and encouragement and we have done much to put these in place.

You are all aware that the education sector in South Africa is the largest employer in the country; it is the largest sector of the public service. It is not for any other reason that considerable resources (human, financial and material) are needed to maintain it, let alone transform it. These have not always been available in the form and amount we would have liked, due to the myriad of other competing priorities in government. This has meant that many of the sectors which were deliberately disadvantaged in the past have continued to suffer despite our best efforts.

Nowhere in the country is this disadvantage greater than in the Eastern Cape. No other area of the country had inherited such a neglected educational infrastructure. Many of our schools have been erected by poor communities using the meagre resources they possessed to provide shelter for their children for learning and teaching. We have been replacing and refurbishing these structures gradually over time, but we still have schools without sanitation, without water, without proper buildings and without furniture and equipment. Massive strides have been made to combat this, but when resources are limited, there is consequently a limited impact. The sad thing is that research has shown that educational achievement is linked inextricably to resources and that even buildings do make a difference to the quality of learning experiences enjoyed by children.

High levels of poverty in our communities have a negative impact on education outcomes. Children who are hungry cannot concentrate, cannot learn, and cannot compete with better nourished children. I hear harrowing tales of children who come to school hungry, without having eaten breakfast or supper the night before. I hear accounts of how some children from the same poor home are fed and others not, simply because the one is older and does not qualify. Being older does not make you any less hungry. There is a clear link between educational achievement and adequate dietary provision. The sooner the school nutrition scheme is extended to all learners who need it, the better the achievement of our learners shall be. Fortunately, the expansion of the school nutrition programme to higher grades is firmly on the government’s agenda.

As I have mentioned, part of the transformation has been to improve support to educators in the classroom. The department has continued to appoint subject planners at head office and subject advisors as well as education development officers in districts. This is a significant development which has taken some time and some careful budgeting to achieve. This places us in an even better position to be able to offer subject guidance to educators in schools and to assist in the development of educators as they implement the new curriculum.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the last six months the department has put a lot of effort in jerking up school support and monitoring, right from head office and districts to the schools, and has demonstrated an unwavering commitment towards refocusing all of our operations primarily in achieving quality teaching and learning. The core business of the department is to improve education outcomes for all levels as stated in our vision and mission statements. Sometimes it seems that we make a fuss only of the grade 12 results and forget about the rest. This is a misperception. We have taken meaningful steps to improve the results of all learners throughout the system, from Grade R to Grade 12 including Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) and Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges, with a comprehensive learner attainment improvement strategy, known to those in the department as the Learner Attainment Improvement Strategy (LAIS) programme. This programme is being strengthened each year and now encompasses all grades and education institutions.

It is obvious that we need to know whether learners are meeting basic performance standards in the primary schools. The recent launch of the foundation for learning campaign by the Honourable Minister, Mrs Naledi Pandor, has primarily been focused on laying the basics of reading, writing and numeracy. If the foundations are weak or shaky, it is clear that learners cannot proceed until they have firmly grasped these basics and we shall in all likelihood see a tightening up of promotion and progression criteria in the years ahead. But further information about the performance of learners in primary schools is essential.

It is for this reason that the Department of Education has begun a process of testing school learners in selected grades to benchmark progress and assess the impact of our teaching efforts. This programme will be extended in the years to come and culminate into the introduction of general education certificate at the end of Grade 9. Our assessments will ensure that learners, teachers and schools which are not performing to expectation can be assisted to improve.

Now to this year’s results, it is important to note that this is the first year of the new curriculum (the national curriculum statement) and thus the new examination, the National Senior Certificate (or NSC) is a benchmark year. It would in no way be fair to the learners or their educators to compare last year’s results with this year’s. The results are produced by similar learners, but those who have been taught very differently and who have written a very different examination. There is no differentiation in the NSC, no Higher or Standard Grade, and the cognitive challenge of the examination has been generally higher than last years’ exam. There are new subjects and the content and approach of those which have remained have been altered considerably. Learners have been asked to think, to theorise and to demonstrate their theoretical knowledge in authentic assessments. For these reasons we should not be quick to compare the results of this examination with those of previous years.

However, human nature being what it is, we always compare, even if we are comparing apples and oranges. So suspending our beliefs for a moment, there are significant improvements in some subjects and very worrying declines in others. The results in English first additional language and mathematical literacy (a new subject) were very pleasing indeed. It is also worth mentioning that candidates offering geography did well. Generally, most learners found the examination papers in all subjects to be tough but fair. This does not mean however, that they fared well.

At this point it is crucial that we note the historical structural weaknesses that still prevail in our system that is invariably to the detriment of our learners from formerly disadvantaged schools.

I wish to draw attention to the poor performance nationally (including the Eastern Cape), of candidates in the agricultural science examination. It was conceived and provided to learners to have a meaningful impact on the quality and quantity of agricultural practices in our country. It has not managed to achieve this, as the vast majority of learners offering this subject have not done well. Considerable attention needs to be paid to this subject in the year ahead.

The climax of this occasion is for me to congratulate the successful 2008 candidates for achieving what they have achieved. It is also my responsibility to tell those who have not met the requirements for immediate success, that government and the Department will still be availing resources for them to complete their studies.

Here we are unveiling the strengths and challenges that have been posed by transformation of our curriculum.

In the course of our administration of examinations, we have noted the following critical achievements:
* The province has experienced not leakages of question papers in the past eleven years.
* Our learner support programmes have included attendance of Saturday, Winter and Spring schools.
* We have also distributed study mates or study guides and exampler question papers via our 23 district offices.
* Our school governing bodies have been responsible for supervision of afternoon study periods.
* We have also conducted radio talks and lessons on Umhlobo Wenene, Tru FM and Unitra community radio stations until the last paper was written.
* We were also involved in a special project in partnership with read (support to English first additional language teaching).
* The department has also conducted a countdown media campaign for Grade 12 through messages of support in the local newspapers.

In the same vein, we have to acknowledge the following systemic challenges and constraints that still prevail in the department:

* There still remains a challenge of an inadequate culture of learning and teaching in many of our schools.
* Also, there is inadequate teacher capacity for the new NCS, coupled with the shortage of maths and science educators.

The injunction that has made maths or maths literacy compulsory for all learners irrespective of their ability has not gone down well with others in the education fraternity for 2008 we have registered 906 schools as examination centres in 23 districts with 60 297 learners and with 49 registered NCS subjects. As part of our LAIS, all learners complied with Continuous Assessment (CASS) requirements which are the first of its kind. Of the 60 297 learners who wrote the exams, 30 494 passed, which constitutes 50,6 percent. The following three districts are the best performing provincially namely:

* Graaf Reinett: 70.1 percent
* Port Elizabeth: 68.6 percent
* Grahamstown: 66.6 percent

Even though the overall performance is still a challenge, it is important that we note a few of the statistical highlights that permeate this year’s examinations:
* For 2008, 8 662 have met the requirements for admission to study for a bachelor’s degree, which makes up 14.3 percent of the total number of this year’s learners; this is a marked improvement from last year’s 9.3 percent mark for endorsed learners.
* Mathematical literacy and life orientation, which were only introduced this year, have managed a 71 percent and 98 percent pass rate respectively.
* Whilst our overall performance in maths and science requires improvement, these two areas’ qualitative standard has significantly improved, as maths produced 768 distinctions and physical science came in with 141.
* Accounting has come in at 56.3 percent, with a total of 242 distinctions.

I wish to offer my congratulations to the top candidates. You have indeed accomplished something noteworthy you are the first graduates of the new curriculum and have shown that with hard work and application one can still excel, even in a much more challenging school environment. You have made your parents and your teachers very proud. To all the successful candidates, I am sure that as you enjoy your success, you will be quick to remember the teachers who helped you and your family who supported you. Yours has indeed been a long and sometimes difficult road. For those of you continuing your studies in higher education please continue to make the most of the opportunities given to you, study hard and come back home to the Eastern Cape. We need your knowledge and skills to make us not only the breeding ground for past leaders, but the nursery of future ones.

To the unsuccessful candidates, please remember that the examination can be repeated and with further hard work and diligent application, you too shall pass. Contact your district office for advice on what to do next to obtain your qualification.

Looking ahead to the New Year, the department is already at an advanced stage in its preparations for school readiness for the 2009 academic year. Our school readiness programme, summed up in October’s Circular 58 of 2008, has been divided into the following nine critical pillars:

* The department reaffirms the importance of the Learner Attainment improvement Strategy(LAIS) in strengthening our structures of leadership and management.
* On site school monitoring and support through community mobilisation and structured working relations between the school management, educator component and the parents. Strengthening of sound labour relations that we have achieved in 2008. Unions as stakeholders are key to our success.
* Commitment to the implementation and adherence to National Curriculum Statement and assessment policies.

Commitment to enhanced learner support in the New Year through timeous delivery of learner and teacher support material:
* In that regard we want to confirm that, to date, we are proud to announce that the delivery of stationery to all our schools was finalized before the break for summer holidays.
* Furthermore, all our schools in the FET band have received all their literature and textbook requirements.
* Grade 7 textbooks delivery will be finalised between the 12 and 19 January 2009
* Foundation phase materials to the value of R54 million is already with our distributors, and we will shortly be advising our districts of our delivery schedules, which is also projected to be finalised before the reopening of schools for the new academic year.
* Provision of adequate human resources at all levels of the system.
* Ensuring that infrastructure plans for maintenance are in place.
* Provision of teaching resources and physical facilities.
* Ensure strengthening of accountability systems and disciplinary procedures.
* Enhanced media and community profiling of LAIS and the back to school campaign.

We will begin 2009 with our hand on deck in protecting the right of our learners to quality education. But it is also important to emphasise the following aspects that:
* all learners should be in schools on the 21 January 2009 and intensive teaching takes place
* school educators and managers should be in schools and ready to commence the academic year by the 19 January 2009.

I want to thank all officials of the department, at both head office and districts, who have committed themselves to enhancing learner attainment in our province. Secondly, I want to thank our social partners in particular the labour unions for their contributions and close working relations with the department in 2008.This has indeed laid a solid foundation for the provision of quality public education in province. I also thank head office and district assessment and examinations officials for delivering an effective and credible National Senior Certificate examination. It is indeed a mark of credibility and effectiveness that when we had finished the capturing of all our marks, we were able to assist other provinces who were struggling to meet deadlines. Thank you and well done to Mr Govender, Mr Mabona and all the staff. I think they deserve a round of applause.

Issued by: Department of Education, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
30 December 2008
Source: Department of Education, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecdoe.gov.za/)