Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Mr Collins Chabane CEO of the Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust, Ms Nokuthula Ngubane and the Trustees Chairperson of the Presidential Address Golf Challenge, Dr Alex Mahapa Esteemed Sponsors of the Golf Challenge

Ladies and gentlemen

I am honoured to be given this opportunity to say a few words at this event which has a noble objective, to contribute to the betterment of the lives of our children.

I thank the organisers of this event, the sponsors and every one of you who took time off your busy schedules to be here.

I also thank particularly the sponsors of this event and the donors to our Education Trust, who make the dream of education possible for our young kids.

It is through your help that the Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust will have a very meaningful milestone of twenty year next year.

This Trust has changed the lives of thousands of learners, and by so doing, has also improved conditions of tens of thousands of people in the country.

This is all through your assistance and participation, which enables us to advance in education as one of our key priorities.

The success of the implementation of the National Development Plan and our Medium-Term Strategic Framework depend on education and the availability of the necessary skills.

This is why we invest so much in education, and seek to provide our learners with a strong competitive edge with their counterparts in other countries.

It is for this reason also, that we also roll-out communication infrastructure to enable our learners to equip themselves with the best information technology learning skills.

Ladies and gentlemen

Very soon our matric results will be released, which will once more give us an opportunity to evaluate and robustly reflect on our progress as government with regard to improving education.

The results will no doubt indicate that we are hard at work to improve our education system and our efforts inspire much hope than despair.

We have mounted various programmes, which also involve partnerships and collaboration with other sectors so that we advance our education.

At the beginning of 2010 we announced the Annual National Assessment as a tool intended mainly for improvement of Mathematics and Literacy. These have provided a critical diagnostic data to help determine areas of weaknesses.

This enables targeted interventions in these areas and topics which are problematic, so that there can be improvement going forward.

When we introduced these National Assessments, our target was that at least 60% of learners in Grade 3, 6 and 9 should have achieved acceptable levels of competency in Language and Mathematics.

Three years down the line, there is improvement overall, in some instances considerable, while at the same time there is a need for remedial action in some areas.

As the Minister of Basic Education outlined, generally, the ANA results indicate visible improvement in Mathematics and Languages in the Foundation and Intermediate phases over the last three years.

More specifically, in Mathematics for example, at Grade Three percentage of leaners achieving 50 or more was 65 in 2014, with a considerable improvement from 36 in 2012.

At Grade Six, the percentage is 35, which though it is a serious improvement from 11 in 2012, needs to be sustained upwards to reach the 60% target.

In Grade Nine there is just a very modest growth from 2% to 3% and thanks to the ANA as a monitoring tool, this presents an obvious area of intervention.

Considerable improvements have been made in languages, particularly home language.

Therefore our targets of at least 60% of learners achieving acceptable levels of performance have been exceeded in both Language and Mathematics at Grade Three level.

At Grade Six the target has been exceeded in Home Language, but not in Mathematics. Therefore despite the improvements, Mathematics is still as serious challenge in this country.

Swift remedial actions will therefore be undertaken with regard to the problematic levels so that we create a healthy feeder for our tertiary education system, particularly in areas of Mathematics and Science.

With all these, esteemed guests,

I am emphasising to you that we are hard at work to gradually improve the education system and outcomes. In this way we are building a better future for our country and our children.

But as you appreciate, education cannot be the sole responsibility of government, let us all be involved.

I thus appreciate your support, so that we give underprivileged children an opportunity to receive education and improve their livelihoods.

Together let us move South Africa forward through better education!

Thank You!