1

SPEECH BY MEC FOR EDUCATION IN KWAZULU-NATAL,

Ms NELISWA PEGGY NKONYENI, MPL, ON THE

OCCASION OF THE RELEASE OF THE 2015 NATIONAL

SENIOR CERTIFICATE RESULTS HELD AT INKOSI

ALBERT LUTHULI INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

CENTRE (ICC), DURBAN, 06 JANUARY 2016

Programme Director

The Honourable Premier, Mr Senzo Mchunu

The Speaker of the KZN Legislature the Honourable Ms Lydia Johnson

My Colleagues and Members of the Executive Council

The Provincial Chairperson of the ANC Mr Sihle Zikalala and entire

Leadership

Chairperson of Portfolio Committee on Basic Education the Honourable

Ms Nomalungelo Gina

Chairperson of the Education Portfolio Committee, Ms Linda Hlongwa

Members of the National Parliament and Provincial Legislature

Mayors

Head of Department, Dr Nkosinathi Sishi

Senior Management of the Department

Principals, Educators and Parents

Our Top Achievers present today

Leaders and Representatives from Organised Labour

Representatives from School Governing Bodies

Faith-Based Organisations, Civil Society, Learner and Student Bodies

Our Social and Business Partners in Education

Members of the Media Fraternity

Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen

2

Program Director it gives me great pleasure to announce the

Matric results at the time when the ruling African National

Congress (ANC) government continues to make enormous

strides in achieving one of the goals of the Freedom Charter

which was to ensure that the doors of learning are open to all

regardless of race, colour or creed. This is particularly so with

2015 having seen the 60th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter

and having been declared the Year of the Freedom Charter by

our President, His Excellency JG Zuma.

Allow me, Program Director, to state that presiding over the

education of our young people in the Province of KwaZulu-

Natal is indeed not an easy task but a fulfilling one. It is very

fulfilling because we are developing our youngsters holistically,

as Martin Luther King Jr once said that intelligence plus

character is the goal of true education.

Words of inspiration also reverberated in the speech by

President Zuma when he stated in his State of the Nation’s

Address on 12 February 2015, that “Our youth is our future and

their success fills us with immense pride”.

Program Director on 06 January 2015, I stood at this platform

and informed the audience present then that we as the

Department have adopted altruism, honesty, compassion,

professionalism, fairness, excellence, teamwork and empathy

3

as important values to guide our vision and actions. Today as I

stand before you to announce the 2015 Results I would like to

once again reiterate these values because without them we will

not be able to develop our learners into citizens who will really

add value to the success of our country.

Program Director in 2015 the Department experienced a

number of disturbing incidents where our learners and

educators tragically passed on under various circumstances. I

want to pay tribute to all those who passed away last year and

may their souls rest in peace. However, I do want to say that

we have experienced a very horrifying trend where our

educators seem to be murdered as a way for others to ascend

to promotional posts. We want to condemn this foreign

tendency in the strongest possible terms and promise the

perpetrators that the long arm of the law will always catch up

with them, as the Zulu saying says that “Ayikho impunga

yehlathi”, which loosely translated means that you can run but

you cannot hide.

Similarly, we want to strongly condemn the violence that is

meted out against our learners either by outsiders or by their

fellow learners. We are very saddened by the fact that some

young lives perish as a result of this unnecessary violence and

we would like to urge parents in particular, to constantly engage

4

their children about issues of violence so as to inculcate a

culture which abhors violence in all its manifestations. If we all

work together to achieve this goal we will be able to establish a

violence-free society and our schools will in turn be free of

violence.

5

Compatriots at this juncture allow me to talk about another new

and equally disturbing phenomenon which seems to proliferate

in our societies and has therefore become part of the options

which some of our young people look to, which is suicide.

Some of our learners seem to believe that once they have

failed they have reached the end of the road. All of us as

society need to dismiss this misleading notion because it is not

true. I want to appeal to our learners, that not passing matric

does not constitute the end of the world. There is evidence

showing that many renowned leaders, successful business

people and even celebrities whom our young people hold in

high regard as heroes and role models, failed their matric at

one point or another. However, because they understood that

this was not the end of the world, they did not despair. Instead

they repeated their matric or pursued other ventures to ensure

that they improved their lives despite their not passing matric. I

want to say that as a nation we need to implore upon all our

young people to understand that there is nothing that is worthy

of taking your own life.

When you feel that you have reached the end of the road make

sure that you talk about your predicament to as many people as

possible and soon enough you will begin to realise that your

situation is not insurmountable and therefore not worthy of

destroying your precious life.

6

I would like to announce that the supplementary examinations

will be commencing in February with full support from the

Department for those learners who did not do well. Over and

above that the Minister announced yesterday that she will be

launching the Second Chance Programme for learners who did

not pass their matric examinations.

National Development Plan (NDP) Programme Director one of the strategic drivers for the

Department is the National Development Plan (NDP). The

NDP recognizes that the quality of education for most children

is poor. It therefore states that one of the attributes which

South Africa should have achieved by 2030 is quality school

education, with globally competitive literacy and numeracy

standards. All our endeavours, Program Director and

Honoured Guests, strive to achieve the commitments as set out

above.

THE DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET AND THE AUDITOR

GENERAL’S REPORT

Compatriots it is important that I briefly talk about the issue of

the budget so that people can understand the delicate

balancing act that we have to undertake when we implement

our programmes, and therefore begin to appreciate the

7

achievements that we are able to record under the

circumstances. The budget which the department received for

2015/16 was R42 billion. 87% of this budget goes to the

Compensation of Employees due to a number of factors, which

leaves only 13% for the delivery of other services.

Coming to the Auditor-General’s Report, firstly I would like to

indicate that over the past couple of years the findings of the

Auditor-General have not been favourable to us. However,

because we were not happy with this state of affairs, we

worked tirelessly to extricate ourselves from this rather

unsettling situation. It is on the basis of these tireless efforts

that today I am proud to report that for 2014-15 Financial Year

the Department obtained an unqualified audit opinion. In

addition to this, the Auditor-General further noted that no

unauthorised expenditure was incurred during that period. Our

ultimate goal is to obtain a clean audit report with no matters of

emphasis raised.

Before I go any further Program Director, let me briefly highlight

some of the departmental programmes which we have

implemented as part of ensuring delivery of quality education

for our learners, which we also count as achievements for

2015, in view of the financial environment under which the

entire country is still operating.

8

THE KWAZULU-NATAL EDUCATION SUMMIT

The Department of Education held a very successful Education

Summit on the 24th and 25th of April 2015. This Summit was a

pinnacle of our efforts to strengthen the Quality Learning and

Teaching Campaign in the province. Its deliberations greatly

influenced our allocation of resources in the 2015/16 financial

year. We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to all who

participated including the Members of the Provincial

Legislature, Organised Labour and the Business Sector.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Programme Director under Human Resources we have been

able to fill more than 1700 promotional posts, 141 Circuit

Management and Subject Advisory posts, and 14 Senior

Management posts. One of the key roles for Circuit Managers

is to provide support and to monitor effective curriculum

delivery to allocated schools which in most cases is around 30

schools per Circuit Manager. Subject Advisors on the other

hand are there to enrich capacity and guidance to educators in

the implementation of the curriculum. Lastly to address the

lack of in-house technical capacity within our Infrastructure

section, the Department has advertised and filled a number of

9

Technical Personnel posts including Civil Engineers, Quantity

Surveyors, Artisans and Works Inspectors.

OPERATION BOUNCE BACK

Operation Bounce Back is a term which we gave our Provincial

Academic Improvement Plan for 2015 and Beyond. We are

continuously implementing this programme for the next five

years to improve learner performance. Its main objective is to

effect focussed interventions to improve learner performance in

the Province.

PROCUREMENT OF TOOLS OF TRADE

Honoured Guests in response to an outcry about the

unavailability of the tools of trade which was negatively affecting

the performance of our employees, we have purchased 224

vehicles at the cost of R38 million and further utilised R18 million

to purchase printers, desktop computers and laptops during this

current financial year.

10

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Programme Director in her speech delivered during the 2015

Release of Results Function the Minister of Basic Education the

Hon. Ms Angie Motshekga said “the quality of education of any

system is predicated on the quality of its teachers”. In this

regard we conducted a number of Curriculum Management

Workshops for Principals, School Management Teams and

educators, including preparing schools for the implementation

of the new CAPS programme. We are also currently

renovating and upgrading our Provincial Teacher Development

Institute for use as an in-service training facility for both our

office-based and school-based educators.

WINTER AND SPRING REVISION CLASSES FOR

LEARNERS

We also conducted winter and spring vacation classes as well

as boot camps in all Districts which focused on revision of work.

A separate bootcamp was organised at Magudu Lodge in

Ophongolo in Zululand District targeting high flyers from

previously-disadvantaged communities. 240 learners across

the 12 Districts of the province participated in the programme.

Some of the learners who participated in this bootcamp

managed to be in the top five in their respective Districts. I

wish to congratulate all of them but mention in particular

11

Lindokuhle Mazibuko from Amangwane High School in

Bergville in uThukela District who obtained nine As. As the

Department we are going to replicate this bootcamp

programme throughout the Province in our endeavour to

reclaim our glory and produce quality results for the Province.

For all the learners who participated in the bootcamp and

managed to do well, we will do our level best to ensure that

they are enrolled at tertiary institutions.

NATIONAL SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMME (NSNP)

Compatriots the NSNP is one of our most important

programmes which contributes to the alleviation of poverty and

also encourages our learners from poor backgrounds to attend

school. The programme currently benefits over 2 million

learners in more than 5000 public schools, in Grades R to 12

which constitutes about 80% of learners of compulsory school

going age who are provided with nutritious meals on school

days. The programme further contributes to the enhancement

of job opportunities within the local communities by contracting

service providers and food handlers.

12

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE

Honoured Guests despite the decreasing infrastructure

allocation the Department completed 10 schools in the 2014/15

financial year. In the 2016/17 financial year, the Department

has 29 new and replacement schools under construction of

which 10 schools are targeted for completion by the end of the

current financial year.

PARTNERSHIPS WITH SOCIAL PARTNERS

Programme Director flowing from our understanding of the

valuable contribution that our social partners have on education,

we have formed partnerships with many organisations involved

in education. To mention just a few we now have

ambassadorship programmes for Maths, Agriculture, and

Accounting. Another programme which has an impact in our

schools is the Jik’imfundo which provides capacity to school-

based Managers and curriculum implementers. There are many

other localised partnerships which we have established which

are making a huge impact in our schools to whom we are very

grateful, but because of time constraints we cannot name them

individually.

13

PROCUREMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE 2016 LEARNER TEACHER SUPPORT MATERIAL (LTSM) Compatriots the procurement of LTSM in KwaZulu-Natal is

managed in line with the Basic Education Sector Plan for

LTSM. To that end the delivery of all essential LTSM for the

2016 Academic Year was finalised in November 2015. The first

week of the 2016 academic year will be utilized to deal with any

late LTSM queries from schools.

2015 NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS

Honoured Guests we are presenting to you today quality results

which a free of irregularities and are a true reflection of our

achievement, which will ensure that our interventions are

correctly guided. We have reached this level by ensuring that

Invigilators and Monitors are well-trained and that in cases

where there had been irregularities in the past Resident

Monitors are placed. We want to thank the whole team for

making a concerted effort to avert irregularities.

The Class of 2015 is the second cohort to seat for the

Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement-aligned National

Senior Certificate examination. This cohort started grade 1 in

2004. The group was part of the curriculum transformation

processes which saw the revision of policy and introduction of

14

new curriculum statements such as the Revised National

Curriculum Statement (RNCS), and National Curriculum

Statement (NSC). The group reached the FET phase when the

Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) were

implemented at grade 10, 11 and 12.

The National Senior Certificate examination started on 19

October 2015 and concluded on 27 November 2015. This is the

largest group to seat for the National Senior Certificate

examinations in the province with 162 658 full time candidates

as well as 30 000 part time candidates.

Overall performance of the province

Honoured Guests, the province of KwaZulu Natal obtained

60.7% in the 2015 National Senior Certificate examination. Of

the 162 658 candidates who sat for this examination 98 761

passed the examination. This was an increase from the 97 144

learners who passed the same examination out of 147 739 in

2014. The achievement of these candidates includes Bachelor

passes which allow a learner to enrol at a university, Diploma

passes which makes learners eligible for studying at University

of Technology, Higher Certificate and National Senior

Certificate passes which gives learners an opportunity to study

at a Technical Vocational institution (TVET College).

15

Historically the province has produced more than a million

passes in the National Senior Certificate Examinations since

2004. The quality of passes in 2015 shows that the province

obtained more Bachelor and Diploma passes than the Higher

Certificate and National Senior Certificate (NSC) passes.

Evidence to this is that 98 762 Candidates who passed in 2015,

34 751 obtained Bachelor passes and 39 799 obtained Diploma

passes against 24 181 Higher Certificate and 31 NSC passes.

16

District performance

The Districts performed as follows:

District Wrote Achieved Pass %

Amajuba 9217 5415 58.75

ILembe 9141 4747 51.93

Pinetown 20098 12993 64.65

Sisonke 6985 4380 62.71

UGu 11910 7177 60.26

UMgungundlovu 13218 8986 67.98

UMkhanyakude 14054 8810 62.69

Umlazi 21648 15726 72.64

UMzinyathi 10047 4679 46.57

UThukela 11095 6778 61.09

UThungulu 18360 10023 54.59

Zululand 16885 9047 53.58

All the 12 districts declined from their 2014 National Senior

Certificate pass percentages. The declines are from 1.94% to

12.75%.

The ranking of districts according to their pass numbers shows

that the three districts (Umlazi, Pinetown and UThungulu)

passed more than 10 000 candidates each.

17

Zululand passed more than 9 000 candidates. UMgungundlovu

and UMkhanyakude passed more than 8 000 candidates each.

UGu passed more than 7 000 candidates. UThukela passed

more than 6 000 candidates. Amajuba passed more than 5 000

candidates. ILembe, UMzinyathi and Sisonke passed more

than 4 000 candidates each.

Programme Director, our focus as the Department in 2016 will

be on the large key subjects which declined in 2015. These are

Accounting, Agricultural Sciences, Business Studies,

Economics, Geography, History, Life Sciences, Mathematics

Mathematical Literacy, and Physical Sciences.

18

Despite the declines in large key subjects, the performance of

the Province shows that the number of passes was satisfactory.

This is illustrated as follows:

Subject

Description 2015 Wrote 2015 Achieved

Accounting 39671 20430

Agricultural

Sciences 22463 16427

Business Studies 69615 48097

Economics 41626 25291

Geography 78898 54674

History 39930 31766

Life Sciences 86927 56718

Mathematics 85057 28265

Maths Lit. 79549 45871

Physical Sciences 50163 25988

19

Performance in Home Languages

All the 6 home languages performed well as follows:

Number of passes in large key subjects

Subject Description 2015 Wrote 2015 Achieved 2015 Pass Rate

Afrikaans Home Language

858 842 98.14%

English Home Language

28986 26311 90.77%

Sesotho Home Language

38 38 100.00%

SiSwati Home Language

478 471 98.54%

IsiXhosa Home Language

3387 3365 99.35%

IsiZulu Home Language 131690 130989 99.47%

20

Progressed Learners

The Department had a responsibility to provide support to

10 070 progressed learners. We are proud to announce that

our targeted interventions bore fruit in the sense that we were

able to pass 47% of these learners as follows:

PROGRESSED LEARNERS

PROGRESSED LEARNERS 10 070

ACHIEVED 4 765

BACHELORS 1 541

DIPLOMAS 1 879

HIGHER CERTIFICATES 1 344

NSC (SCHOOL LEAVING) 1

PASS % 47.3%

Provincial pass rate including progressed learners 60.7%

Provincial pass rate without progressed learners 61.6%

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Program Director allow me to extend the words

of gratitude to the following: my organisation the African

National Congress particularly the Health and Education Sub-

Committee convened by Comrade Lydia Johnson; the

Executive Council of KwaZulu-Natal, the Provincial Legislature,

(in particular the Portfolio Committee on Education, the Finance

Portfolio Committee and the Public Accounts Committee),

Organised Labour, School Governing Bodies and Parent

21

Associations; the officials from Head Office to District level as

well as all our Educators and all our stakeholders for the

support which they have all given us to ensure that despite the

challenges that we experience as the Department of Education,

we are still able to execute our mandate of providing quality

education to our learners. To them I want to say that without

your support we would not be able to perform our duties

adequately. However, to those officials of the Department who

are still not performing at an optimal level we are going to act

decisively to remedy the situation.

We also want to make a clarion call that education is and still

remains a societal issue. We should all ensure that we all

make a contribution towards the improvement of culture of

learning and teaching in our Province.

I would also like to thank my family for their continued support

and understanding of the odd hours that I have to work to

perform my duties. Their support in this regard is invaluable.

Lastly but not least, to all the learners in the province, I want to

say 2016 has started. You must hit the ground running so that

you are assured of success. To those who did not pass matric

I say do not despair, for this is not the end of the road for you.

22

Pull yourselves up with your bootstraps and soldier on like

many pioneers before you.

To the top achievers gathered here today I want to say that the

sky is the limit for you. The journey that you have started is an

assured journey to success. We all have faith and confidence

in you because you have demonstrated that you have the

capacity and capability to perform and achieve at the highest

level. Take the baton and run with it. At this juncture I wish to

quote Francesca Lia Bloch when he said “If you want to find the

trail, if you want to find yourself, you must explore your dreams

alone. You must grow at a slow pace in a dark cocoon of

loneliness so you can fly like wind, like wings, when you

awaken”

“Recognise that there is something amazing about you.

Everyone has something that comes very natural for them –

natural gifts and talents. That gift/talent is that thing or things

that come easy for you, but hard for most. The greatness that

was stored within was given to you because it was meant to be

used. Whether you have been running from it or haven’t

discovered it yet, it’s here. It’s your job to discover and master

it. It wasn’t given to you in vain, it’s part of your purpose.” So

said Yvonne Pierre.

I THANK YOU