Issued by: Office of the Deputy President
STATEMENT ON MATRICULATION RESULTS: DISAPPOINTED MATRICS SHOULD SEIZE THEIR SECOND CHANCE
The National Youth Commission notes with concern and disappointment the increased matriculation failure rate for the 1997 school year. In a year when important and significant policy strides were made towards consolidating qualitative transformation towards a single, integrated and non-racial system of outcomes-based education, it is disheartening to recognise that short term benefits of a clearly sound approach to education have been hard to realise.
To those matriculants who have succeeded, the National Youth Commission salutes the hard work and achievement involved.
As importantly, the NYC urges matric candidates who did not pass their examinations to return immediately to the task of successfully completing their school education. In the understandable immediate concerns regarding performance statistics, we need to also keep in mind the large numbers of failed matriculants who will simply and unnecessarily opt to abandon their education at this time. The country needs educated, skilled young people and yong people should not needlessly turn their backs on the prospect of a full education simply because tough hurdles have been encountered at this crucial phase of their educational development. There is no reason or excuse for anyone who did not complete matric his year to not go back to school and achieve this in 1998. That is a patriotic duty incumbent upon all young South Africans and we foist this responsibility on our young compatriots in the knowledge that it is in their own as well as the country's best interests.
Even with the lower pass rate, we reiterate the concerns expressed in the proposed National Youth Policy that the amount of available opportunities and resources fall far short of catering to the needs of each year's matriculating class. It is an obvious intention of aspects of the National Youth Policy to address that situation and hopefully the benefits of these initiatives will be felt as early as the end of the next matriculation year.
In this regard, the NYC believes that the current finger-pointing blame game between teachers, parents, students and the Department of Education and Training regarding the disappointing national results is a misdirection of energies that could and should be best channeled in the same direction. The interests of our youth are not served through the mere act of scoring unconstructive political points. The responsibility for the educational culture in which our young people can best thrive is a collective one not only for those in the education sector but for all society. Passing of the buck remains a pointless exercise when there is clearly room for improvement by every party concerned. We would nevertheless, however, repeat our call to youth to be as vigilant about exercising their responsibilities as they are about their rights. The completion of one's education is one of the most important of these responsibilities.
For its part, the NYC has ensured that the National Youth Policy pronounces clearly on issues of education and post-matric opportunity. In particular, the following are key elements of the Policy's Action Plan for 1998:
Programmes and services provided by youth and community colleges will be expanded to incorporate and address the needs of all out-of-school young women and men, and not only those who failed matric. These will include pre-employment training, vocational training and skills development, as well as remedial courses to help out-of-school youth to catch-up and return to school. The National Youth Commission, in close consultation with the Department of Education, will investigate current curricula, action plans and accreditation of young and community colleges to find ways where development and placement of out-of-school young people takes place through these institutions.
The main issues to be addressed when considering the issue of student financing are the need to ensure that a lack of personal finance does not prevent a young person from enrolling in higher education and finding a way to deal with growing student debt. In particular, a financial and programme for Further and Higher Education, incorporating a revolving system of repayments into a national educational finance aid scheme, will be pursued. This project will include investigating the feasibility of qualifying and offsetting student debt through internships and community work via National Youth Service.
As conceptualised by the 165 national youth organisations attending the 2nd National Youth Summit, the National Youth Service identifies unemployed, out-of-school and school-leaving youth as amongst its key target groups. Service will provide new life, work and educational opportunities to these young men and women and aims to integrate them into society through a structured, nationally-accredited skills and work programme.
The successful development of South African youth remains a central prerequisite to the ultimate success of the transformation process in South Africa. Let's keep the interests of young men and women firmly at the centre of this debate as it unfolds!
Mahlengi Bhengu NYC Chairperson
7 January 1998
Further enquiries may be forwarded to NYC communications director Paul Johnson on Cell/Voicemail 082 771 8465.
Happy New Year to all!