EC pupils need our team effort
THOUSANDS of Eastern Cape matriculants yesterday celebrated ending their 12-year school career.
Unfortunately, the province once again came at the bottom of the matric pass rate with 65%. This has been the trend for seven consecutive years but the latest results show there is an upward trajectory, as the province’s pass rate is a much welcomed improvement from 2016’s 59.3% – a 5.7 percentage points increase.
The Free State again came tops with 86%, followed by Gauteng at 85.1%; the Western Cape achieved 82.7%; the North West managed 79.4%; the Northern Cape was at 75.6%; Mpumalanga 74.8%; KwaZuluNatal 72.8% and second to last was Limpopo with 65.6%
Mediocrity should and must never be celebrated but the fact that the Eastern Cape achieved the secondmost improved results after KZN, which registered a 6.4 percentage points upswing, is cause for celebration. This, as education authorities have said, is a step in the right direction.
Without putting unnecessary pressure on the class of 2018 even before they start the first day of their final school year, improving the province’s matric pass rate from 65% is partly up to them.
But dedication alone from the pupils will not be enough. An all-handson-deck approach will be needed.
That means there must be a teacher in front of every child every day, while the parents must also play their part.
Mud schools should also be eradicated and an efficient scholar transport system be in place.
If everyone plays their part, the province will not only rid itself of the unwanted tag of being bottom of the class every year, but there will be more like Phikolomzi Mjikelwa, Mphoenthle Piliso and Reamohetse Mofitiso.
The three 17-year-olds did not only make themselves and their families proud, but flew the Eastern Cape’s flag high when Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga named them among the top achievers in the country.
Their success is proof that being schooled in rural areas does not necessarily mean you will receive substandard education.
But in order to produce more top achievers and ensure the Eastern Cape will one day be named as the best performing province, more has to be done at primary schools where a good foundation has to be laid.
Pupils should from the lowest classes be pushed and encouraged to aim for the sky so that if they fail, they will land in the stars.
Practising and studying every day after learning something new in school, will make pupils better understand and lighten the load when they have to prepare for their final examinations later this year. Then the sky will be the limit.