The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] welcomes the 2022 National Senior Certificate [NSC] Examination Results as announced by the Department of Basic Education.
We congratulate all grade 12 students who successfully passed their matric examinations and also encourage all those who have not succeeded not to give up but to try again. We salute all stakeholders, who worked hard to achieve the overall matric pass rate of 80.1% which represents an improvement of 3.7% attained by the class of 2021. These results are a positive step in the right direction, however more work still needs to be done in addressing challenges confronting our education system.
We salute all teachers especially our sister union SADTU for its dedication in improving the level of education in our country and also for fearlessly leading the struggle for quality basic education for working class students in particular. These improved results are a clear indication that despite numerous challenges and negative perceptions, there are a lot of dedicated and hardworking teachers, who constantly surpass expectations and silence critics every year.
As NEHAWU, we call on government and all stakeholders to ensure that all deserving students are accommodated in higher learning institutions. We call on universities and other institutions of higher learning to diligently prepare for the registration process.
We call on Universities to refrain from implementing their usual draconian admission criterion and also re-assess their inflexible financial demands because they systematically exclude learners from poor and rural communities. We call on all financial institutions and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme {NSFAS} to provide financial support to poor students in order to help them access higher education.
Equally, the Department of Higher Education and Training {DHET} should allocate adequate resources to TVET colleges in order to provide quality learning and training for students who enrol in those institutions. The department should also put in place measures to prevent desperate students falling prey to bogus colleges and other fly-by-night learning institutions.
Lastly, the union will be rallying behind the Right to Learn Campaign of SASCO and YCLSA, which primarily is about ensuring access and success to education for all students in particular those from the working class background and further mobilise other progressive forces to join the Education Front under the umbrella of the Left Popular Front to wage a campaign against the government’s neoliberal policy orientation which seen a persistently stagnant allocation of subsidies and student funding in the post-schooling system.
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Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat
Zola Saphetha (General Secretary) at 082 558 5968; December Mavuso (Deputy General Secretary) at 082 558 5969; Lwazi Nkolonzi (NEHAWU National Spokesperson) at 081 558 2335 or email: lwazin@nehawu.org.za