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The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) today said that the disappointing
matric results released this morning is a clear indication that the
education system is in a state of crisis.

"Whilst the IFP would like to extend its congratulations to those
matric students who have passed their Senior Certificate examinations,
today's results must be a wake-up call to government that urgent steps
must be taken to address the critical shortcoming within our education
system," said Mr Alfred Mpontshane, the IFP's education spokesperson.

In spite of a massive 20% of our budget being spent on education,
public education continues to fail our children year after year.

"Our matrics are failing in large numbers; this is happening not
because our children have suddenly become less intelligent, but
because under the present system there is a scarcity and uneven or
erratic distribution of resources and the management of the whole
education system is structurally dysfunctional. The machinery
required for our children's education has become inefficient," said
Mpontshane.

Mpontshane said that the IFP has always been a strong critic of
government's failed OBE experiment. "An entire generation has now been
educated with the this disastrous curriculum and today's results which
revealed a dismal performance of South African matric pupils in maths
and physical science proves that the education system has failed the
test," said Mpontshane.

Significant interventions are now needed, especially in a province
such as the Northern Cape, which has recorded a shocking 11% decline
in its pass rate.

"To get our education system back on track we must now go back to the
basics of education. Poor teaching, especially in rural areas remain a
critical problem and we are therefore again calling on government to
reopen teacher training colleges in 2010. Teacher training must become
our main priority if we want to stem the downward trend in our overall
pass rate. We also call on government to ensure that other
shortcomings such as lack of basic resources are dealt with before
schools reopen later this month," added Mpontshane.

Mponthsane added that part of an education turn-around strategy must
focus on primary school teaching and the behaviour of teachers at
primary and high school level.

"There is currently is serious neglect of primary school education
which must be addressed as a matter of urgency. If we don't get
education right at primary school level we will never be able to
improve our matric pass rate," said Mpontshane.

Mpontshane concluded: "Lastly, the IFP believes that the time has come
that teachers are held accountable for their actions. The IFP has
constantly decried the politicisation of our teachers, which has seen
teachers abandoning classrooms for party political activities. The
valuable teaching time lost due to strikes and political campaigning
no doubt also contributed to today's disappointing results."