Cape Town - The ANC in the Western Cape province wants Premier Alan Winde to act against Education MEC Debbie Schäfer for the drop in the province’s ranking in the matric pass rate.
The party said if he didn’t sanction her, they would have her “investigated by other authorities” to assess whether she was fit for her job.
Khalid Sayed, ANC deputy chief whip in the legislature and spokersperson on education, said Schäfer must stop blaming the slide in matric results on “so-called education refugees that weaken the system”.
Instead, he said, she must provide a clear turnaround strategy.
Sayed said Schäfer continued with the claim that inept migrants coming to the Western Cape are the cause of the province sliding down from the top position.
“Last year this province dropped nationally from third to fourth place.”
Sayed said many parents and even school governing bodies called the party to alert it to serious problems at schools.
“The first one that needs urgent attention is the ongoing violence, which includes stabbing, illegal weapons at school, bullying, illegal initiation practices and even illicit corporal punishment which is still rife,” Sayed said.
Schäfer said she was “tremendously” proud of the achievements of the learners.
“And I am extremely disappointed by Sayed’s continued insistence on denigrating the achievements of our learners, teachers, principals, parents and education officials in the 2019 school year”.
In the NSC 2019 examinations, Schäfer said the province’s pass rate increased, bachelors pass rate also increased.
She said pass rates and bachelors pass rates in Quintile 1, 2 and 3 schools increased as well, and the retention rate increased.
Schäfer said Sayed must stop running around the province trying to pretend the ANC is the champion of education, “when the issues we are facing are a direct result of his party’s mismanagement of our country’s economy”.
“We cannot appoint more teachers without more money.
“We cannot build more schools and classrooms without more money.
“The reason we have so many security issues is because the criminal justice system has been so emasculated as a result of cadre deployment by the ANC, that criminals know they can commit crimes at will with very little chance of being caught,” Schäfer explained.
“We have real plans, but need more funding.