By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Gauteng premier Hendrik Panyaza Lesufi took center stage to present the province’s performance, highlighting the resilience and dedication of students, teachers, and schools in the face of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lesufi along with Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane released the province’s 2023 matric results in Bryanston, Johannesburg.
The province achieved an 85.4% pass rate, which Chiloane lauded as an improvement from the previous year.
Chiloane announced the provincial results on Friday morning following a national breakdown by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Thursday evening.
“Chiloane emphasised that we had 84% last year, and now we’re at 85%, which simply means it’s an improvement.
However Lesufi reprimanded Chiloane for failing to achieve a 90% matric pass rate.
“I duly accept that, Chiloane, but my performance contract with you does not speak about 85%. My contract with you speaks about 90%, and you have not achieved that.
“So out of 10 points that I have to give for performance, on this one, I am going to allocate 3/10.”
Gauteng, along with the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, has been announced as one of the three best-performing provinces.
Lesufi said the results were not merely numbers on a page, but a reflection of the collective hard work and determination of the province’s matric students and their educators.
He spoke of new initiatives such as teacher training, infrastructure development, and the provision of learning materials and technology to schools.
“These measures, he stated, were instrumental in maintaining Gauteng’s position as one of the top-performing provinces in South Africa in terms of matric results.”
The Premier said he was a big fan of Singapore’s approach to education, which included incentivising teachers even during their studies.
“They are rewarded while training. If you can’t treat teachers as an important tool, forget it.
“Education is an important tool for the country. They have human capacity which comes through. Teacher formations don’t leave me alone in this thing,” he said.
Lesufi vision encompassed not just on academic success, but the holistic development of students into contributing members of society.
The premier didn’t mince his words as well when he called for one exam for all matriculants in the country.
“We don’t want to discard any examination, we just want quality education for all our children so that we don’t have this celebration here and someone is having a celebration there on something that is different.”
He has also called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign the Basic Education Law Amendment Bill which is currently before him.
The bill has received opposition from organisations such as the AfriForum, who have threatened to go to court, arguing that its adoption would be financial unfeasible in expanding compulsory pre-school education and on language policies.
Lesufi said the bill was calling on Early Childhood Development phased education to be compulsory.
“There must be no child who cannot attend ECD because they can’t afford it. We want ECD to be exactly like Grade 1, all children must attend.
“If we don’t sign the law, we will be defeating the purpose of BELA bill on grounds of language. “Let our children go to school rather than spend time playing with bricks at informal settlements.