SADTU WESTERN CAPE STATEMENT ON THE 2023 NSC RESULTS
22 January 2024
SADTU Western Cape applauds the class of 2023 on their performance in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations. This demonstrates their diligence over their twelve years of education. We take note of the challenges that the learners encountered, viz. the COVID-19 pandemic which robbed them of maximum school attendance during 2020, the taxi strike which affected the working-class areas, as well as the flooding which also had an impact on schooling. The learners’ resilience and commitment ensured that they overcame all the challenges encountered during the difficult times. We encourage those learners who did not make it to register for the second chance program.
We commend the educators who gave up their personal lives and families to make sure their learners were ready for their exams. We can never take for granted the sacrifices made. Some teachers even delved into their own personal resources to ensure that the learners achieve good results. We also acknowledge that the results are the consequence of all twelve years of schooling, including the role of Grade R teachers who set a firm foundation for the learners.
Office-based educators ensured that schools get the necessary support they deserve, especially in the poor working-class schools. We also note and appreciate the role played by various NGOs and Western Cape Education Department (WCED) tutors in improving the educational outcomes.
We can never leave behind the parents, who supported their children throughout this journey, and ensured that they cater to the needs of the learners. We are deeply concerned that while in other provinces some of the best performing learners are from working class schools, in the Western Cape province it is mostly affluent schools that produce the top performing learners. While acknowledging the closing gap between fee paying schools and non-fee-paying schools, we are still concerned about the disparities of educational outcomes between the different schools. We believe that all role players must be consulted meaningfully on measures and priorities to ensure that the educational outcomes at the end of the twelfth year of schooling are the same for all communities in the province.
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