Hon Speaker, the current public service strike has delivered yet another blow to South Africa's struggling education system. The timing of this strike is most unfortunate, as it leaves scholars with little time to catch up before their end-of-year exams, this after the stoppages for the World Cup had already delayed their studies.
The current generation of schoolchildren is already used to hard knocks. For instance, outcomes-based education, OBE, has led to poor quality education. Statistics show that only 30% of scholars who started Grade 1 finished school with a higher education certificate. Only 5% entered tertiary institutions. One of the indirect impacts of this strike will be on schoolchildrens' results. This will have a very real effect over time on the future of this generation of schoolchildren.
Whilst the IFP appreciates that government, through the public broadcaster, is running daily teaching programmes to assist learners to catch up with their school work, the questions that must be asked are: How many children can access those services? How many children in our rural areas have access to TV or radio? The truth is that only a small number of children have those luxuries at their disposal. Too many children are unable to access those teaching programmes.
The IFP believes that a disaster is looming and that this will be evident in the matric pass rate of 2010. We need answers from government as to what urgent measures will be put in place to assist learners, especially in the rural areas, to make up for the many hours of teaching time that have been lost. I thank you. [Applause.]