SACP congratulates class of 2025 for remarkable achievement
SACP Communications
South African Communist Party
SACP congratulates class of 2025 for remarkable achievement
Tuesday, 13 January 2026:- The South African Communist Party (SACP) congratulates the class of 2025 for their remarkable achievement of 88 percent overall pass rate in the National Senior Certificate examinations. As the Party, we recognise the hard work and dedication from the learners, teachers, parents and guardians that it took to achieve this level of success.
The consistent increase of the national pass rate is commendable as it reflects the overall stabilisation of the basic education system. The managers and administrators of the education system and individual schools also deserve credit for their unique roles in creating the necessary conditions for the success of the 2025 class and the preceding classes. This progress must be preserved and elevated going forward.
While we congratulate the learners, we must all be alert to some of the remaining challenges that characterise the education system in general and basic education system in particular. Among these challenges is the fact that the vision of a free public education is still not achieved in practice. Despite the quintile system that purportedly allows for free education for disadvantaged students, the practical reality in schools is such that the parents are still required to pay for a large portion of school requirements, from stationery to amenities. The concept of free basic education must be thoroughgoing and not subject to limitations as is the situation in many public schools.
The challenges of transportation of learners remains one of the standing challenges limiting access to education and thereby hampering success for working class and rural learners. It is therefore necessary that the struggle for free and equitable education is an ongoing struggle.
The governance and leadership of the schooling system remain some of the weaknesses which also need transformation. All of this must be anchored on the principle of strengthening public education as the main pillar of our education system.
It is our conviction as the SACP that the public nature of public education must be defended at all costs, and we must resist the encroachment of private players and profit seekers in public education. We call on government and key stakeholders to protect the education of the next generation while ensuring that the working class has access and is therefore able to succeed in the education system.
In addition to the above, one thing that seems productive, while it is in fact counter-productive, is that there are so many schools that have done away with subject streams, with principals under pressure to achieve high pass rates without adequate resources and in other respects including the basic capability to ensure quality teaching and learning in mathematics, science, accounting and other subjects that are most required in the economy, governance and management. As a result, there are so many learners who have been diverted from doing these subjects in favour of pass rates in what seems to be an easy way out. It is part of the competition between provinces, districts and within schools for high pass rates, unfortunately with subject combinations that do not even make sense when analysed, or which are irrelevant for key college or university qualifications most required in the economy. What is sad is that this will compromise many who will find themselves forced into the ranks of youth unemployment and later adult unemployment. While those behind the strategy will be happy if they achieve high pass rates, it will not take a long time before many of the affected young people realise that they were placed into a crisis path.
Finally, as the SACP, we encourage those who did not make it in the class of 2025 to not despair, for there are still many options to pursue to further develop themselves in education and training. The options include enrolling in second chance matric opportunities. The SACP reiterates its call on our government to develop more effective interventions to end the phenomenon of young people who are either not in education and training or in employment.