SACP Eastern Cape Province Statement on school examination

The schooling final examinations have commenced this month, October 2007. The Party extends its message of good luck to all students of our country during this exam of 2007.

It has been a very difficult academic year especially in the Eastern Cape. It was in the beginning this year that our education system faced the challenge of change in the curriculum, the department introduced a new curriculum i.e. NCS grade 10 in 2006 to replace the Nated 550. This caused a lot of confusion for grade 11 this year as those who failed in the old curriculum had to repeat but on a new curriculum. Some schools promoted these students to grade 12 with the old curriculum while other schools made the students to repeat with the new curriculum.

We all know that the public service workers went on a strike action for 28 days in June 2007 for better wages and working conditions. Unfortunately the eastern cape did not have a recovery plan to catch up with lost time. Once again this was left to schools and teachers to develop catch up programmes. A big disadvantage to students. This is the context within which these 2007 exams are written. If you want to kill a nation, destroy its education. The department letting the province down:

1. Textbooks (LTSM) arrive very late at schools in incomplete packages almost every year.
2. There are more than 2200 (section 21) schools that have to account for previous allocation before getting the next allocation. By June 2007, only 300 have accounted for their allocation but not received their dues.
3. There are severe delays in transfer of money to schools and some are no fee schools, which depend solely on allocations. These factors aggravate an already bad situation.

The SACP calls upon:

1. Students to do their level best under these trying conditions. That require creativity on their part to seriously consider study groups / circles between exam days and during weekends.
2. The department to urgently address the problems around slow delivery of LTSM.
3. Around transfer of money allocated to schools. These efforts will change the situation for the better. As the SACP we will raise these matters within the alliance in the coming weeks. Education represents a cornerstone in ensuring socio- economic reconstruction of our country in the interest of workers and the poor.

Issued by the SACP Eastern Cape:

Mandla Makupula
Provincial Secretary
Eastern Cape Province
082 419 3336