It is many parents’ nightmare: when the kids finish matric exams and nag to go with their friends on a matric holiday before their results come out.
This is a critical time in their lives, having given around 12 years to the schooling system.
You’re probably familiar with this. Perhaps your children were there, enjoying the closing moments of their schooling, and celebrating the beginning of the rest of their lives or making a glamorous start to unemployment.
A visionary, President Cyril Ramaphosa, is set to announce a major overhaul of the country’s education system as government tries to prepare the future workplace for the fourth industrial revolution.
The matric pass rate has increased from 60,6 per cent in 2009 when the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga took over, to 78,2 per cent in 2018.
The release of matric results has no doubt triggered speculation about the future of the Class of 2018.
Whatever the outcome of the speculation, what is certain is that this signifies a new start to the post-school journey. Friday, 4 January marked the day that matriculants of 2018 flocked to their schools or referred to the newspaper to see whether or not their hard work had paid off.
Before Minister Motshekga released the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination results, the cynicism had already set in. Predicting that she was going to announce an increase from last year’s 75,1 per cent, the cynics insinuated that the results were either fixed or manipulated to achieve a certain outcome.
By the time the Minister had a chance to show off her brand new look and announce the 78,2 per cent pass rate, she had already been roasted. But she made a point of dealing with those who had criticised her, and those who were planning to criticise her, by preempting the darts that would be aimed at her jacket stripes.
Gauteng scored the highest, making the province the best performing province in the country, and this is the province’s highest performance since 1994.
Once again as the chairperson of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), I congratulate the Class of 2018 for being the best since the advent of democracy and encourage every learner to go further than their predecessors and strive to excel in higher education, the workplace and in their general contributions as SA citizens.
We also wish to commend Gauteng for maintaining their 87,92 per cent performance status. We also extend our gratitude to parents, teachers, principals, teachers, the unions and officials for supporting the class of 2018.
