SACP Western Cape Congratulates the class of 2015 and reject the privatisation of public schools
7 January 2016
The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Western Cape welcomes the 2015 matric results. The results reflect the outcomes of the dedicated work by learners, teachers and parents. We also note the 2.5% improvement in the Western Cape, positioning our province ahead of all other provinces.
Whilst we congratulate those who have passed we do, however, know that those who have not passed have tried their level best and we encourage them never to give up. This is informed by our understanding that they are not the sole cause of their failure but societal challenges and a lack of resources have also contributed to their results.
We urge the Western Cape proincial government not to be triumphalist, the 2.5% increase in 2015 and the 2.9% decrease in 2014 point succinctly to inconsistent trends in results. It is against this background and reality that there is still a bulk of schools, in particular from quintal 1-3 (no fee schools) which require a substantive increase in resources to ensure that the youth is fully capacitated to alter society for the better.
We must also take cognisance of the necessity to ensure substantive resources are allocated to poorer schools. Celebrating performance results before comprehending the context is a narrow stance taken by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). The unequal status of quantile 1-3 schools compared to that of quantile 4-5 is characteristic of the WCED's stance to the poor in our province.
Privatisation of public Schools by the Western Cape government
As the SACP, we strongly condemn the idea of commodifying our education system by annexing public schools and delivering them into the hands of profit-driven consortiums. The privatisation of our education system has been presented as a collaboration between the provincial government, the community and private consortiums. This ploy by the WCED is nothing more than the implementation of neoliberal policy, policy that will ignore and censor the community, parents, teachers and workers say in the governance of the school. Developing young minds must be done in the context of societal needs and not profit margins and annual performance results.
Our comrades in SADTU and SACP branch leaders have provided first-hand experiences of how these "Collaboration Schools" have been bulldozed in. With no proper consultation and comprehensive explanation - parents, teachers and workers have been at the receiving end of this ploy. This attitude and behaviour is symptomatic of the WCED, under Donald Grant poor schools were arbitrarily closed down.
In honouring comrade Joe Slovo, together with our communities, SADTU and COSAS - the SACP will mobilise and direct all its energy to fight against the commodification of our education system. The SACP commits to ensure that our education remains under the control of the people and that the people guide the development of our youth.
As the SACP we reiterate our call that the Western Cape Provincial Department of Education to immediately prioritise the challenges facing working class learners in the Province in the context of the travesty of the legacy of Apartheid that continues to perpetuate socio-economic difficulties in institutions of learning, and now, as a direct result of the DA Governments regressive policies of targeting working class schools to generate profit.
Issued by SACP Western Cape
Contact:
Masonwabe Sokoyi - SACP Western Cape Provincial Spokesperson
Cell: 0815846138/ 0765243242
Office: 021 696 2522
Fax: 086 558 2481
Twitter: @SACPWC
Facebook: SACP Western Cape
Email : sacpwc.media@gmail.com
