The Congress of South African Students has noted the commencement of the
trial examinations this week and as an organization which advocates for
academic excellence we want to wish matriculants good luck for the
ongoing examinations, but we are unable to do so.  This is because we
understand that people do not do well in examinations by chance or
coincidence but it is through studying.

As the Congress of South African
Students we call on all students currently occupied with their
examinations to work hard in their studying and they should equally
bother their teachers in the staffrooms. Fellow students do not hesitate
to go and ask teachers to clarify you were there is a need, without being
shy or hesitant. The Congress of South African Students calls on learners
to make use of study groups formed by learners themselves as part of the
Each One Teach One program. Any school can form its own Each One Teach
One Program through a group of learners forming study groups and having
one learner who has better knowledge of the subject teaching the others
or inviting external people who are equipped with the subject knowledge,
another option is inviting a teacher within the school to assist if they
are revolutionary and believe in the course of advancing an educated and
conscious society. Important things to note is that students must try as
far as possible to eat healthily during this period and drink lots of
water, they should rest at times and also manage their time  properly
allowing enough time for studying. We urge students to visit our website
to download previous exam question papers on www.cosas.co.za. Instead of
wishing the learners good luck we say they should follow the above
methods and a pass will be guaranteed.

On Calls made by the Congress of South African Students:

The Congress of South African Students maintains their stance on all the
calls that have been made by the organization so far. The Congress of
South African Students re-affirms its position on the publication of
matric results. The organization has spoken on many platforms on this
issue, strongly substantiating why matric results publication should be
abolished, with the primary reason amongst many being that it violates
learner’s right to privacy. We will not deter, as the students’ movement,
from pushing this call through, we continue to lobby other progressive
social movements to speak on our call in defence of human rights.

As the Congress of South African Students we further maintain our call to
learners of the whole country to fight fire with fire. As the students’
movement we continue to intensify our call and we further mobilize
support of our parents and general community members to stand with us as
we say enough is enough with corporal punishment. Violence in any
instance has never been a solution, that is why we say that all sticks,
pipes and canes must be confiscated in schools and any teacher found
guilty of raising their hand on learners, shown the gate of not just the
school but of the department of education and gates of prison opened to
welcome them to be rehabilitated and attend anger management classes.

As the Congress of South African Students we are still watching the
movement of all provincial departments of education which still do not
convince us that they take our education seriously.  We say so because
there are still schools with poor nutrition programs or none at all,
there are still toilets which are health hazardous to learners in
schools. We further still have schools which are mud made, schools with
no electricity, water, fences and with absolutely no learning resources.
We are sending this out as a clear message that we are keeping tab of all
these issues.  We don’t know whether these provincial departments are
aware or not, that on top of all of these things that they need to fix we
still demand tablets for all learners, E-learning is the future and we
want it now. If we have to implement the strategy of the 80’s of anarchy
then such shall prevail because the course will be just.

On the Upcoming National Congress of the African National Congress Youth
League:

The Congress of South African Students organizes learners who are within
the age of the constitutional age requirement in the ANCYL which is from
the age 14 years. The Congress of South African Students is equally a
component of the Progressive Youth Alliance of the African National
Congress, and further a component of the Mass Democratic Movement. As the
Congress of South African Students we are aware that for some of our
stances within the education sector to materialize the ANCYL as well as
other originations within the mass democratic movement need to support
and advocate for our views on the development of education. It is with
this view that the Congress of South African Students has an interest on
the resolutions which will be taken by the upcoming ANCYL national
congress on education and youth development in general. We further have
an interest on the leadership that will emerge to lead the program of
action thereafter; it is for this reason that we support our current
president General Collen Malatji who is currently the deputy chairperson
of the ANCYL Ekuhruleni Region to enter as a member of the National
Executive Committee, comrade Collen Malatji is more than ready to serve
in this particular structure as under his leadership we have already
experienced major developments in the education sector. The Congress of
South African Students is fully behind its President General on this
stance in advancement of the struggle to develop the general education
sector of our country and to see a speed up process in youth development.