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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Eastern Cape Youth Structure notes and welcomes the 2016 National Senior Certificate results as announced by Minister Angie Motshekga on the  4th January 2017.

 

 We note that the Eastern Cape has moved from 56.8percent in 2015 to 59.3percent in 2016, and we welcome the improvement. 

 

"We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the learners who have made it and encourage all those who have not made it not to give up but go out there and try again as Lennin always emphasis that the duty of young people is to  learn, learn and learn. They must not take this as the end but understand that they are the future of our country and we depend on them to try again," said Siliziwe Nikani, NUM Eastern Cape Youth Structure Secretary.

 

"We wish to acknowledge and appreciate the work done by all the departmental stakeholders and staff on their efforts and contributions toward this improvement.

We call upon all stakeholders to come together and bring an amicable solution to the challenges facing the department.  We acknowledge the systematic challenges faced by the department, but those need to be resolved as soon as yesterday, we can’t be experiencing the same problems without finding progressive solutions for the department," Nikani said.

 

We further call upon the society as a whole to hold the school governing bodies accountable and giving the community constant feedback through constant meetings and actively participating in the development and effective running of the schools.

 

We welcome the employment of the Superintended General (SG) of the Department of Education as the department has been without the SG for a while and will bring more stability and yield good results for the department. 

 

We have noted the performance of the female learners nationally and would like to congratulate them specifical­ly for achieving 97 904 of the 158 395 distinctions and 87 974 of the 162 374 bachelors. 

 

Government should do more in improving the conditions in the schools in the rural areas and township. We are of the view that we need to create a conducive and fun environment in the rural and township schools that will entice parents and learners to be part of them through good results, sports, arts & culture. Government should also employ Occupational Therapists to assist learners on bridging all the gaps at foundation phases and enable learners to reach their full potential.

 

We call on the private sector particularly mining to play a critical role in improving the schools in the rural areas, they should build skills centres, libraries and other learning and sporting facilities, because the majority of its employees comes from these areas. 

 

We further call on Social Development department to look into the child headed homes and assist in those homes to enable the children to fully concentrate on the school work without the burden of having to be care givers to their younger siblings.

 

Learners should also be motivated and aligned to the required skills in the country to avoid a situation where after their tertiary qualifications they struggle to get employment, we call on all SOEs, government departments and private sector companies to champion this call as it will benefit them as future employers, the country as a whole and we have a surplus of critical skills to move our economy forward. It cannot be correct to put blame on individuals; instead we should concentrate on building each other and the department to emerge victorious come 2017 metric results because the casualties are the youth who depend on our guidance.

 

For more information, please contact:

Siliziwe Nikani: NUM Eastern Cape Youth Structure Secretary: 072 855 8474

 

Address:

7 Rissik Street.

Cnr Frederick,

Johannesburg  2001

Tel: 011 377 2111

 

Web: www.num.org.za  

Twitter: @Num Media    

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NUM/100860023402167