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The Young Communist League in the Western Cape Province would like to join the Nation in applauding the class of 2009 on their achievement and putting the province of the Western Cape on the lead academically. This is a reward for hard work, discipline and perseverance on the part of our young people, and we would like to thank them for being the drivers of their future.

However we are concerned with the inequalities that continues to characterise the schooling system, and that continues to disadvantage the poor and the working class. The best performing students continue to be from advantaged and previously White schools that cater for the rich and those from middle class families.

The Young Communist League would like to thank educators who have shown commitment and dedication, especially those in under privileged schools who continue to work under conditions characterised by gangsterism, drug abuse, under resourced environment etc. We salute all those educators who have died as a result of barbaric acts of gangsterism while pursuing this noble cause of educating our children.

Education is one of the key priorities of ANC government, as expected from any legitimate authority which claims to have the best interest of its people at heart. The youth are the future of this country, and makes up the majority of the population, hence an investment in the youth is an investment for the future.

The YCL calls on the Western Cape's Education Department to ensure that public schools serving the poor, especially rural youth are sufficiently resourced in order to give those learners a chance to perform optimally and develop holistically like their counterparts in the advantaged schools. Their underperformance is not as a result of their academic inabilities, but it is a direct consequence of historical social injustices that continues to haunt youth of today.

Education is about teaching and learning, and this cannot be possible if issues of security in schools are not given the necessary attention it deserves and learning materials not being delivered on time. Quality education can only be attained through equitable allocation of learning aids and apparatus, and the maintenance of discipline and order in our schools, amongst other things.

We support the efforts made by all stakeholders to make our schools centres of excellence, and the YCL pledges its support in that regard with the believe that education is a societal issue that needs teachers, learners, parents, unions, and civil society to work together.