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The Class of 2024 entered Year 8 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and have had to receive significant learning support to bridge the resulting gaps in their learning.
As a nation, we are proud of the students who will be rewriting the exam this year, taking advantage of the Ministry of Basic Education’s Second Chance Program. You deserve your determination to improve your academic prospects. It’s a life lesson about the importance of not giving up.
In recent weeks, the students have been immersed in their studies. They have taken advantage of opportunities for additional lessons, completed revisions with their teachers, and participated in the many student support programs administered by provincial education departments.
Providing students with the necessary resources to enable them to achieve good graduation rates is a joint effort between the Ministry of Basic Education, provincial education authorities, school boards and students’ families.
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I commend our nation’s educators for their commitment to our graduating students as they reach the end of their high school years. At the annual National Teaching Awards ceremony earlier this month, I spoke of teachers as dedicated gardeners, whose attention, guidance and encouragement our nation cherishes. The successes that the Class of 2024 will undoubtedly achieve will be due in no small part to the efforts of our nation’s dedicated teachers.
All necessary systems are in place to ensure that the exam period runs smoothly. The Ministry of Basic Education and Qualification Standards Authority Umalusi have been hard at work monitoring the over 9,200 examination centres, appointing and vetting examination points and approving question papers. These include adapted question papers for students with special needs.
The department has introduced strict conditions to minimize the risk of questionnaire leaks, fraud and deception. Additional invigilators have been appointed, some exam centers will use CCTV and security at exam locations has been improved to keep disruptions to a minimum.
I would like to thank all exam candidates across the country who have signed the NSC Exam Code of Conduct. This obliges them to be academically honest during the exam.
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The annual examination period is a time to reflect on the scale of efforts to enable these young people to participate in economic activity once they have achieved the results they have worked so hard for.
According to the latest Quarterly Labor Force Survey, the unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 24 is 60.8%.
Just as preparing our nation’s young people to succeed in this exam is a collaborative effort, there is much more that partners like the private sector can do to hire young people.
We once again call on employers to relax the requirement for prior work experience, especially for entry-level positions and for entry into professions where young workers can be trained on-the-job.
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Employers should take advantage of incentives to encourage them to hire more young people. These include various sectoral apprenticeship agreements, discretionary grants for skills training and the Employee Tax Incentive.
Recent inspections of business premises by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Employment and Labor have brought into sharp focus the controversial issue of some employers preferring to hire foreigners and illegal immigrants.
Employers should instead offer more opportunities to young South Africans entering the job market. They must not forget that this is required by law
ensure that no suitable South African citizen or permanent resident is available to fill a position before employing a foreigner. This is an established practice around the world.
Like society as a whole, we have a responsibility to ensure that the morale of the Class of 2024 is boosted by knowing that their hard work and sacrifices will be rewarded.
Let’s continue to work together to ensure that the newest crop of graduates get the employment or further education and training opportunities they deserve.
Kind regards,
Cyril Ramaphosa
politicsweb.co.za
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