MEC for education, Tate Makgoe, has challenged the 2014 matric class to outsmart their predecessors who outperformed all the matriculants in the country with an 85 percent pass rate and clinched the number one spot in the overall 2013 national matric results.
The MEC was speaking at a ceremony hosted by his department and U-Bank to handover 450 pairs of school shoes to learners from disadvantaged backgrounds at Kgoro Ya Thuto Secondary School in Botshabelo.
Makgoe said this year’s matriculants must work hard to achieve the 90 percent matric pass rate target set by his department. He discouraged the learners from using their poor background as an excuse not to perform well in their studies and final year exams.
“It is very much possible to make it. I tell you that you may be coming from a very poor family, both your parents might be unemployed, but you can change that situation around and help to extricate your families from the dire conditions they had to raise you under using education as a weapon,” said Makgoe.
Acting head of the department of education, Fani Sithole, said black learners have proved that they can perform as well as their white counterparts, and is some cases better than them. He said learners in township and rural schools should no longer doubt their ability to do well in matric. He challenged matriculantsat Kgoro Ya Thuto to make the province proud by achieving a 100 percent pass rate.
U-Bank sponsored the buying of the shoes. The bank’s chief operating officer, Bongani Radebe, said the bank decided to invest in education to ensure that black children, especially those from impoverished backgrounds, get decent quality education.
“We strive to make sure that there are no children that go to school without shoes or proper uniform. U-Bank has put aside a huge budget to improve this school and ensure that it produces good results and learners who can be future leaders,” said Radebe.
School principal, Moeketsi Chaka, said his school appreciates the goodwill gesture by the MEC and U-Bank.
“Most of our learners come from very poor families and with this donation some responsibility will be lifted off their hard pressed parents. This enables their parents to focus on providing for their children other pressing needs and learners tofocus on learning rather worry about not having uniforms,” said Chaka.
Leaner Representative Council (LRC) member at the school, Moshoeshoe Moleleki, said the donation meant a great deal to him personally. He is raised by an unemployed single mother.
“There are five of us at home and we are all going to school, it is very hard for my mother to look after all of us. She is unemployed and struggles to care for us through the child grant she collects on behalf of my siblings,” said Moleleki.
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