Chairperson, when dealing with the Eastern Cape and the KwaZulu-Natal report, I don't think I will be long. I am giving this report on behalf of the whole committee because we all passed it. The multiparty delegation of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and the Select Committee on Education and Recreation conducted the oversight visit to the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
In the Eastern Cape, we went to Ntabankulu, and in KwaZulu-Natal we went to uThukela District. The purpose of the visit was to do oversight and also assess the state of readiness. Coming to the challenges in the Eastern Cape, last week we had a report from the Minister and a debate was held. We are aware of the fact that the Eastern Cape has been placed under administration.
With regard to KwaZulu-Natal, we looked at the flood damage. The challenges were the unavailability of access roads and bridges. Sometimes learners could not go to school because of that. In some schools roofs were blown down; and some still needed workbooks. The school nutrition programme was not operating. They also had transport problems.
Within our report, you will find our findings and recommendations. The multiparty delegation again discussed the release of the matric results. I would like to give the results: Gauteng had 78,6%; Western Cape, 76,8%; North West, 75,7%; Northern Cape, 72,3%; KwaZulu-Natal, 70,7%; Free State, 70,7%; Eastern Cape 58,3%; Limpopo, 57,9%; and Mpumalanga, 56,8%.
The Northern Cape recorded the highest improvement of 11%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 9,6%. As the committee, we would like to congratulate the Gauteng province for being the top province, by achieving 78,6% after being the second best after the Western Cape in the 2009 results. This was passed by the whole committee.
On the oversight visit to the provincial examination centres in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, the findings were that the delegation was unanimous in the observation of a marked improvement since the last visit. It was observed that the deployment of the officials to Mpumalanga from the national department to assume responsibility for the administration of the National Senior Certificate, NSC, process had a positive and huge impact.
The importance of the visit by the portfolio committee to those regions was noted, not only when the situation was challenging, but also when there was significant progress. I won't speak about the recommendations. I think it was important that we went on that visit last year because, with regard to the examinations and the marking, the results were positive.
In conclusion, a person can see that we still have a few challenges at those centres. The way the matric results were done was a success. All those reports were accepted by the ANC, DA, IFP, ACDP, and Azapo. I thank you. [Applause.]
Declaration of vote:
Chairperson, the National Senior Certificate pass rate is arrived at by dividing the number of students who passed the exam by the number of students who sat for it. It is therefore a measure of quantity and not quality.
In these terms, our country saw an increase in the pass rate of 7,1% between 2009 and 2010. When I heard the results for the first time I thought that I was witness to the biggest educational fraud of the century. There was no rational explanation for this result; schooling was rudely interrupted by the World Cup, the public sector strike and an unusually high level of teacher absenteeism.
There was no evidence whatsoever of better teaching and certainly not on a scale to justify a jump of 7%. Some of it can be explained by doing more of what is normal, such as the spectacular increase in the number of part-time students who are then taken out of the statistics, and the slightly more generous adjustments by Umalusi, neither of which is illegal or unethical.
I suspect that the problem lies with the raw scores: poorly trained markers at poorly supervised marking centres. Mpumalanga has 17 marking centres and cannot be properly supervised, whilst the Western Cape has two marking centres, and the ethos of being easy on the children prevailed at these marking centres.
If one considers that 30% is often taken as a pass, the picture is even grimmer. Imagine this: Would you go to an accountant, an engineer, a medical doctor or have your child educated by someone who only gets 3 out of 10 right in mathematics? Would you, Minister Pandor?
We pump out desperately undereducated children year in and year out on the basis of an ANC-run national education Ministry. What is to be done? The most fundamental thing we can do is to put properly trained teachers in front of functional classes in functional schools, which is what the DA is doing in the Western Cape. Do I still think that the matric results were a fraud? Yes, I do. [Applause.]
There was no debate
Chairperson, I move:
That the reports be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Reports accordingly adopted.