Premier Ebrahim Rasool and Mrs Roshida Sabodien
Fellow Cabinet Colleagues
SG Ron Swartz, DDGs and other senior officials from WCED
Members of the Standing Committee on Education and other MPLs
Rectors and CEO’s of Higher Education Institutions and FET Colleges
Representatives of Teacher Unions, Governing Body Associations, Representative Council of Learners and Student Organisations
Chairperson and Members of the Western Cape Youth Commission
Principals and teachers representing schools receiving awards today
Matric learners who will be honoured today and your parents
Representatives of Absa, our sponsors of today’s event
Ladies and Gentlemen

In his State of the Nation Address earlier this year, President Thabo Mbeki characterised our optimistic times as the "Age of Hope".

But he also cautioned, that "we should move faster to address the challenges of poverty, underdevelopment and marginalization confronting those caught within the Second Economy, to ensure that the poor in our country share in our growing prosperity".

In keeping with this theme, Premier Rasool in his State of the Province Address, noted that the province "…is standing on the threshold of prosperity" while also noting threats to hope.

Premier, the matric results that I present to you today show that we can cross that threshold of prosperity. But, Premier, we also cannot hide from the disparities that the results still reflect.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 62 251 learners entered for the Senior Certificate Examinations of which 42 694 were full-time learners; 12 532 part-time; and 7 025 private candidates. In total this represents an increase of 2 419 learners compared with 2005.

Of the 39 832 learners who correctly wrote the full examination, I am proud to say that 33 316 learners passed. This represents an overall percentage pass of 83,7%.

Although this is slightly down from the figure of 84,4% last year, I am pleased to note that, in real terms, 1 238 extra candidates sat the full exam and 743 more learners passed. This increase in numbers, plus generally consistent performance overall, bodes well for the future.

I have repeatedly stressed that we should also focus on the quality of the passes achieved by our matrics. This year, 10 589 learners passed the Senior Certificate with endorsement, which is 195 more learners than last year.

The number of candidates who passed with distinction, is also up. This bumper total of 2 280, or 5.73% of all candidates, who pass with distinction is our best achievement in the period 2002 – 2006. We have seen a slight but steady increase in this category in each of those years, so well done to the class of 2006 for keeping up the pressure!

I note other slight increases: 79 more learners sat Maths Higher Grade this year; of the 4 741 candidates who wrote Science on the Higher Grade, 4 053 passed: this is 688 more learners than in 2005.

I’d like to applaud the fact that the pass rate in ex-DET schools has increased by a pleasing 3.68% this year and that, in fact, ex-DET schools have reached their highest endorsement rate yet over the 2002 – 2006 period, with an increase of 0.47% over last year and a slight 0.05% increase in the number of passes with merit.

It is a matter of record that these schools have had the biggest resourcing backlogs to make up so I am most encouraged by this evidence of diligence and sound progress.

Our schools have a huge range of contextual variables which impact on them. And inside these very different buildings, located in their very different places, we have teachers, right across the province, who are remarkable and learners, right across the province who are remarkable.

They say that teaching is a "vocation" and nobody here will contest that. All of the successes I have listed can be attributed to the sheer passion, planning, preparation, presentation and management skills of our vast teaching force and the corresponding passion, planning and performance of our motivated learners.

We don’t just single out our top performing individuals today but also take time to honour various schools. Today we will acknowledge the achievements of schools where the matriculation endorsement rates, and Maths and Science results have consistently shown the greatest improvement over the last three years, while enrolment levels have been maintained or increased.

We will also acknowledge schools where there is a consistent number of candidates and where academic performances have similarly been consistent over a period of three years, relative to the context within which the school operates.

I have a special direct appeal to the high-performing schools that we will recognize today. If you can pledge some direct support to teachers and learners in struggling schools that would be a wonderful contribution to make.

I ask you today to consider how you might multiply your expertise and thereby multiply hope for others. Please take this request back to your staffs and communities and contact us in the new year if you think you can form part of the constellation of support.

Premier, you said that there are certain threats to our crossing that threshold to prosperity. If we are going to achieve the goal of shared growth and prosperity, it has to start with our education system and particularly in our schools.

I must be forthright about the challenges. I must state boldly that we can never be happy with a situation where the public ordinary schools which serve the 17 554 ex-HOR and ex-DET learners only have an endorsement rate of just above 13.53% while in ex-CED schools the endorsement figure, for the 6 501 learners of 2006, is 52.13%.

So, Premier, whilst we are really proud of our achievers, we are not satisfied. As the Western Cape we can and we must do better. There are six clear interventions that we will be making:

1. Embark on the quality improvement, development, support and upliftment programme (Quids-Up) programme.

   This initiative, led by Minister Pandor, aims to allocate new learning resources to schools, especially in poor and disadvantaged communities.

   The programme includes all primary schools in quintiles one and two. These primary schools are feeder schools to secondary schools that have poor results. It also includes about 80 high schools with poor Senior Certificate results.

   On the basis of findings of an initial audit we will develop a strategic plan to intervene over three years by providing human resources, physical resources and material resources to schools eg. management training, teacher training, laboratories, libraries.

2. Set Targets:

   By the end of February 2007 each high school in the province is to set an overall pass target, a Matric Endorsement target and Maths/Science targets for 2007. These targets must be formally signed off by the School Governing Body, including the RCL representatives.

   In fact, as 2007 is the last year of the existing curriculum, all schools will be encouraged to pull out all the stops to set individual performance records across the board.

   Targets must be measurable, meaningful, made public, monitored and met. And then you move on: meeting targets is a one-way trip. You must notch up and celebrate each success but move on always to the next level.

   As part of the target-setting I want each high school in the province to set targets to reduce the numbers of so-called "dropouts" for grades 10, 11, and 12 for 2007 and subsequent years.

   Too many learners are leaving the system and it would be very ironical if this was because schools are over-emphasising the target of an exemplary pass rate. Targets must not contradict one another.

3. Broaden our base: work on literacy and numeracy across the board

   What is also very clear to me is that we cannot just look for weaknesses in our high schools. We need to work in our primary schools as well.

   The literacy and numeracy strategy we launched earlier this year is set to make a huge impact – especially once the full-scale family literacy programme and our provincial language transformation plan come on stream.

   "Each one, teach one – together we build a learning home for all" is the predominant vision I have for education. My vision is for classrooms where real learning is happening.

   We have low literacy levels and even lower numeracy levels. At the same time many of our parents are functionally illiterate. Clearly we need to address literacy deficits by having learning homes, learning streets, learning communities and ultimately a learning province.

4. Make our schools a safe learning home for all

   One of the issues that has impacted severely on our schools this year and previous years, is the levels of violence in and around our schools, and the aggressive behaviour of learners.

   We have planned and will implement an unprecedented inter-sectoral campaign, to build a safe learning home, for 2007 and beyond. Discipline patterns and codes of conduct must be set and maintained. Value-adding school improvement plans will be put in place.

5. Monitor and evaluate

   I believe the redesign process of the department must lead to greater research capacity, monitoring, evaluation and accountability. As a learning organisation one of our key challenges is to understand our context, challenges and possibilities and respond to them.

   The socio-economic profile of the province and the challenges we face require of us to do something extraordinary to create the conditions for change.

6. Tackle the situation in the 34 schools still performing below 60%.

   I want to spend a little longer on this point. Premier, when you visited schools at the beginning of the year you challenged us to implement a strategy to focus on ensuring that the schools who obtained a less than 60% pass rate in 2005 rise above this threshold.

   We are proud to announce that 22 of the schools on this special support programme did manage to meet and in some cases far surpass this target.

   I’d like to single out a school in Khayalitsha which obtained 39% in 2005 and has notched up an incredible 2006 pass rate of 94%, while maintaining the number of candidates. It is this type of success which must be analysed and replicated.

   On the 2006 results 8% of our high schools lie below the mark of 60% but there are many more that are under-performing and not securing endorsements.

   The time has come to say that continued under-performance will simply not be tolerated. We will conduct a full contextual analysis of each under-performing school by the end of January 2007.

   Where the main or contributing factor(s) is lack of effective leadership and management, or of problems with fundamentally weak teachers, we will certainly consider options of redeployment of school principals and senior management teams, in line with accepted labour practices.

   We cannot continue to let our children, who go to school every day in the hope that they will be given a good education for a better life, be at the mercy of either ineffective or incompetent principals or managers.

   While I will look to WCED officials to help with standard-setting and assessment practices; to help with addressing the content/knowledge of teachers; to provide rigorous guidance on pacing and methodology and on developing literacy, language and study skills, it is clear that the whole teaching and assessment programme at certain schools needs to be constructively but aggressively overhauled.

   I will call under-performing schools to account in 2007. I expect teachers and learners to be present and prepared and to be teaching and learning.

   Teachers and learners will be required to set and hit targets; they will spend extra hours teaching and learning. Learners must understand that school is a serious business. There is no substitute for hard work!

   The schools must have administrative and logistical matters running smoothly and must set up and maintain learning routines like setting and checking homework, and giving informative feedback on learning.

   I call upon parents and community members to participate. If they can volunteer to help supervise homework at school, then we need them! If they can come in to help teachers with admin or with checking book stock and so on then let’s open our doors! Parents in the home must monitor homework. Ladies and Gentlemen, we must all join hands to return truants to school.

   Schools and communities that work together will grow together; I call on you all to set targets and to celebrate successes; bring in your ex-students to offer support; set up evening classes; make your schools community hubs.

   Let us emulate the initiatives in Manenberg, Hanover Park and Lentegeur where communities are elevating learning to the centre of local mobilisation.

My message to all those that have passed is, simply, congratulations! To the individual learners whom we honour here today, for achievement in Maths, Sciences and Languages, and those learners who have excelled despite a significant barrier to learning, well done – you are role models of a special kind. To the top 20 whom we honour today – enjoy your success! You have surely worked for it!

For those that did not make it, you do have various options available. You can apply for a remark for some or all of your scripts; you can enter for the supplementary exams for next year. But, you can also apply to be admitted to an FET college for vocational courses.

To the proud parents – well done too! I know you have put in so much. To the troubled parents of the disappointed please call our helplines for support and advice.

Hope needs to be nurtured and cultivated. How can we all get stuck in and make a difference? For far too many of our learners just "getting a matric" is the biggest target they can see.

And for far too many of them there are not real plans to take them on beyond today. They might get the bit of paper today but tomorrow there is no job and the next day or the day after there might be no more hope.

I appeal to our partners, to business, to NGOs, to the tertiary institutions, to the media, to help our children to find the doorways to jobs, to learnerships, to volunteerism, to internships, to further study, so that they can live the dreams that they have for themselves and that their parents have made sacrifices for.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to conclude by thanking all our officials – the examiners, markers, invigilators, teachers, principals and administrative personnel – for helping to process over 1 million scripts.

It really is a huge operation, so thank you to the Curriculum and Exams Teams, under the capable leadership of Brian Schreuder and Sigamoney Naicker. I must thank in particular, Andre Clausen and Jenny Rault-Smith who - together with hundreds of personnel - worked long hours to deliver another examination of integrity and professionalism.

I thank you…