Carping about which province did the best

IT’S SICKENING that every year there is this carping about which was the better province, after the matric results.

The ANC is now doing their usual dissing of the DA in the Western Cape because we came 5th. The fact of the matter is there may be many reasons why this is so. One of them which is indisputable is that thousands of learners from the Eastern Cape have flooded into the Western Cape with their families because they think it is a betterrun province, and there is more likelihood of their parents getting jobs. This puts immense pressure on the WCED as they have to find extra places for the thousands who come here to get a better education.

A lot of them arrive at the last minute without having registered. The ANC said there were overcrowded classrooms, and learners unplaced. I would have liked to see the ANC do better under the circumstances instead of stating the obvious. The WCED has poured hundreds of millions into improving school infrastructure.

In the last financial year, the department built more than 600 new classrooms and eight new schools, the majority in rural areas. What has the ANC done in the Eastern Cape? Of course, the elephant in the room is that there are too many of us, and we need to limit our numbers if we are ever to catch up.

It is like the little boy with his finger in the dyke. The water keeps coming. So instead of carrying on about who was the best, let’s also raise our standards so that every second child doesn’t think they are varsity material when patently they are not, and let’s start opening more trade schools. Sit down around a table with all parties and find common ground instead of always moaning. It is so tiresome! Meantime well done on all the matrics of 2023.