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Stellar results about ‘money, resources’: Activist group

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Money and better resources can pave the way to good matric results, an education activist group has said.

This comes after the Independent Examination Board (IEB) reported a 98.30% pass rate in their final year exams this year.

Equal Education’s general secretary, Tshepo Motsepe, said the near perfect result was not a sign of better quality education for the rich, but better resources.

“Rich people get the best in education, like they do in health for example. If you have the money, you can afford to buy your way to good results.”

He said people had to view and analyse the results honestly.

“They don’t tell us anything about the quality of education one gets at private school. You have just over 10 000 pupils writing IEB exams, and over 700 000 in public schools.”

He said private schools did not have to deal with even a fraction of what public schools dealt with.

“What this tells us is that smaller classes, ample resources and better working conditions for teachers can equal great results.”

Motsepe said schools with access to water, electricity, and a good number of teachers, academic material and such resources were bound to get good results.

He said the public education system had been robbed of good quality education and called for better investment in learning by government and the private sector.

He praised public school teachers who continued to do their best, with fewer resources.

Motsepe said more schools were moving towards IEB-level results because they were upping their standards.

He said every child deserved the best education possible.

Congress of South African Trade Unions Western Cape provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich echoed Motsepe’s sentiments.

Ehrenreich said on Wednesday that smaller classes, better equipped schools and access to the best in academic resources meant the IEB matriculants were bound to get better results.

“This means the working class are disadvantaged, which in turn disadvantages them at higher education level at universities and, again, once they hit the labour markets.”

He said this was a systematic problem with knock-on effects and needed to be addressed. News24


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