Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane announced the 2024 matric results at Vodaworld in Midrand.Picture: Itumeleng English/ Independent Newspapers
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has taken a bold step towards educational reform, pledging his unwavering support for MEC Matome Chiloane in an initiative aimed at harmonising the examination processes between private and public schools.
This landmark move proposes that students from schools affiliated with the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) should sit in the same examinations as their counterparts in the public education system.
The decision is generating considerable interest and debate among educators, parents and students alike.
Lesufi’s endorsement of this initiative reflects a growing recognition of the need for equitable education standards across different schooling systems.
Currently, the IEB and the public education system operate under distinct examination frameworks, which has often led to disparities in educational outcomes.
Aligning the examination processes, Lesufi said, would create a fair and inclusive educational environment where every student is assessed under the same rigorous standards.
“We really believe that if you have a child or a school that is an informal school like Lufhereng and it can give us a 96 bachelor pass rate and learners that are giving you six distinctions including Mswawenkosi Buthelezi who is the top achiever, this calls for all of us to push for one examination because the regulator (Umalusi) is the same and the pass mark is the same.
Even at university we get to write the same exam. So, we are saying, why do we not prepare our learners early, have them write the same exam at university but they can't do that in high school,” Lesufi said.
The Premier added that even though this is not an easy task to achieve, the time has come for the country to consider this move as it will level the playing fields.
“The time has come for this to be done. Let me tell you why it must be done. This is because when you do benchmarking for South Africa’s education system, they say public school learners cannot read for meaning, they do not incorporate the IEB because we have different sectors of education but if you combine all of them, the benchmark will be the same across the board,” Lesufi added.
Lesufi made this call during the provincial matric results result announcement event held at the Vodacom offices in Midrand on Tuesday. The province achieved an 88.4% pass rate for 2024.
Lesufi commended Chiloane for achieving the country’s third best matric pass rate and said in spite of losing the second spot to KZN, the risk and gambles his province have taken are paying off.
He pointed to the 35 schools of specialisation as some of the big gambles that are paying off for the province.
The Free State is the leading province with 91% (for six years in a row) compared to the 89% in 2023 and was once again followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 89% compared to 86.4% in 2023.
In previous years Gauteng, Free State and Western Cape who used to be among the top three best-performing provinces.
Some of the positive spin-offs which the province wants to further explore are the continued support of the province’s schools of specialisations.
“We took a gamble to modernise our schools because we believe in skills development. We took a risk. We were insulted and told it is not possible. Schools that are full ICT schools and all of them have not performed below 70 % to change the engine for an aeroplane while it is flying. This was a gamble that in Gauteng every school must specialise and we can't do the same thing for all of us,”he said.
Chiloane congratulated the learners who defied the odds to achieve great marks and help put the province on the map saying this rate was the best since the dawn of democracy.
“This is the best performance since 1995 with a 3% improvement over the 2023 achievement of 85,4%. Congratulations to the Class of 2024! Your hard work and resilience has been justly rewarded,” he congratulated the top achievers.
The national Class of 2024 achieved an unprecedented milestone by securing the highest pass rate in the country, with an impressive 87.3%, surpassing the 82.9% pass rate set by the Class of 2023.
“We must take pride in the fact that a staggering number of 136,060 full-time learners enrolled to sit for the NSC examinations in 2024. This is an increase of 2.6% from the 132,570 enrolled candidates in 2023.
“Gauteng achieved the highest number of candidates qualifying for Bachelor studies, ever, in 2024, with 66,979 who wrote, qualifying with a Bachelor pass,” Chiolane added.
Among the top achievers who were celebrated with multiple awards and prizes is Ekurhuleni’s shining star, Msawenkosi Buthelezi who became the first black learner to achieve 1721 marks across all subjects.
Buthelezi was singled out for praise by Lesufi who said his feat is a reminder of the greatness of some of the leaders who have since passed on.
Siyabonga.Sithole@inl.co.za
Related Topics: