SA must act on findings of task team report on matric

THE findings of the ministerial task team on the National Senior Certificate — the matric exam — which the Sunday Times reports on today, will be a game-changer for education if its recommendations are implemented. The task team and the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, who appointed it and gave it its wide-ranging mandate, must be congratulated on a frank and courageous report.

The findings are likely to be contentious, mainly because of its honest assessment of the barriers in our education system and the insistence on excellence. Many uncomfortable truths are highlighted which have not always been acknowledged, especially by politicians who hide behind the glamour associated with improved matric results which, in the end, mean little to a young adult who is barely literate and utterly unemployable.

The findings represent a terrible indictment of the dereliction of duty by every minister of education since 1994: they have failed our children, who are our future.

Now, let’s move on and see what is to be done. This document will require extreme political will to implement and we urge the government to do so. If this report is an indication of what President Jacob Zuma referred to as radical transformation, we say: bring it on!

But we have to almost immediately acknowledge the stumbling blocks, particularly in the form of the usually combative South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu). Its members — who should be at the heart of a lasting education transformation — will have to accept a large measure of responsibility for the failures of our education system.

Many of the committee’s recommendations, especially those dealing with stricter monitoring of schools-based assessment, the responsibility of principals to ensure the veracity of results, and competency tests for those marking our children’s exams, differ from the current Sadtu mantra.

Regarding the content of the report, we support a differentiated matric, and the tougher standards required for university entrance. We are in favour of the responsibility placed on principals to ensure that school-based assessment is up to scratch, and agree that markers be tested so their knowledge of the subject matter is at a level to maintain standards and do justice to the efforts of our children.

For once in our young democracy, we have the opportunity to serve our children well by transforming their education so they can become proud, contributing citizens of our republic.

Implementing this policy will be a giant leap forward for South Africa. We urge Zuma, Motshekga and the unions not to hesitate. South Africa deserves and awaits your decisive action.