Pegg Seeks to End Business Administrative Burden

> Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

Business owners could have their work cut out, at least as far as administration requirements are concerned.

This is thanks to Pegg.

Pegg, is the personal trainer for business owners.

"Pegg will log your expenses and file your receipts for you, with no fuss at all. Pegg can tell you what you’ve spent or earned for the month and remind you instantly who owes you money."

The most remarkable thing about Pegg isn’t the financial skills and super-sharp memory, but the fact that it is a smart bot that lives on your smartphone or computer. The chat bot is the first in the accounting industry and allows you track expenses and manage finances through messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Slack.

Anton van Heerden, Executive Vice-President, Africa & Middle East at Sage, speaking ahead of Africa’s first ever BotCon , which was held in Johannesburg on 18 November, 2016, said, “The arrival of bots like Pegg, machine learning and ever-more sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence is all about ways to make technology more approachable, fun and powerful for the entrepreneurs and business builders of today and tomorrow.”

Also revealed is that Pegg hides the complexities of accounting and lets entrepreneurs manage finances through conversation, making the process as simple as writing a text. By digitising information at the point of capture, it takes away the pain of filing receipts and expenses, eradicating the need for paper and data entry.

Van Heerden says, “Smart bots, alongside the affordability of cloud-based business applications, is one of the trends that we can expect to dramatically change how business builders work in the future. These bots are not about replacing human beings like accountants or bookkeepers, but rather about making it easier for them to get the most from technology.”

"In South Africa and across the rest of the continent, we can expect to see bots pop up in applications such as education, healthcare, customer support and personal financial management, adds Van Heerden. For example, a mathematics tutor bot could provide schoolchildren with after-hours help when they’re struggling with their homework."

A South African support network for pregnant women, MomConnect, uses Facebook’s Messenger bot to answer specific questions relating to maternal healthcare.

Kriti Sharma, Sage’s 27-year-old VP of Bots and Artificial Intelligence, and the mastermind behind Pegg comments: “Users can say ‘spent R50 on post-it notes at Game’ to enter expenses and can ask questions like ‘how much money did I make last year in October?’ or ‘who is my best customer?’. Some of the most dull, unexciting administrative functions can be the best use cases for bots.”

Van Heerden concludes: “There are more than 50 million active Facebook users in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is an exciting time for entrepreneurs and their accountants. Smart technologies are simplifying business applications and they make it possible for organisations to focus on the things that truly add value to the business.”

SA CEOs Worst Fat Cats

> Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

The rich are getting richer across the globe.

While the world's poor are getting poorer.

But in South Africa, the situation in much more severe. 

South Africa already duped as the most unequal country in the world.

News that South African CEOs topped the list of fastest earners in the world, are highly disturbing and unacceptable, to say the least.

In the latest study released by Quartz this month. It is revealed that South African CEOs not only do they top the rankings of the fastest earners globally, but they are taking just over seven hours to earn the average South African’s annual wage.

Quartz combined British think tank High Pay Center’s data, which monitors pay at the top of the income distribution.

Along this was the Bloomberg’s Global CEO Pay Index and average worker pay in several countries in order to arrive at the result.

Aamna Modin, author of the report noted, “While CEOs in South Africa make far less on average than their American counterparts, their salaries were 541 times more than the average income in their own country." 

“It took CEOs in South Africa just over seven hours to make $13,194, which is the country’s average yearly wage. Assuming Monday, Jan. 2, was a public holiday and they started work at 7:30am on Tuesday, Jan. 3, CEOs in South Africa clocked in the annual average wage by 3pm that day”.

SA was also the only African country to make the list with the rest of the top 5 comprised of economic heavyweights including the UK, Canada, Switzerland and the USA.

WEF's Global Shapers Platform for Youth to Lead

> Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

Zamantungwa Khumalo, a Global Shaper from Tshwane, South Africa, will form part of the 26 Social Entrepreneurs, 50 Global Shapers and more than 100 Young Global Leaders who will participate in the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters.

Khumalo submitted the winning essay in the 2016 Global Shaper essay competition on this year’s theme Responsive and Responsible Leadership.

The 47th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will take place on 17-20 January 2017 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

According to the World Economic Forum(WEF), Global Shapers, is a community of young people under the age of 30.

"Global Shapers will give a voice to 50% of the world’s population that is still under-represented in global affairs, while Social Entrepreneurs and Young Global Leaders highlight the need for social innovation to correct the shortcomings of capitalism." 

The World Economic Forum is bringing more 200 millennials, social entrepreneurs and young leaders under the age of 40 to the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters to share views on the meeting theme Responsive and Responsible Leadership. 

These are members of three foundations operating under the World Economic Forum’s umbrella: the Young Global Leaders, the Global Shapers and the Schwab Foundations for Social Entrepreneurship. 

 

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship has invited 26 leading social entrepreneurs to Davos-Klosters to highlight the need to better service and support communities that are on the margin of society. Social entrepreneurs are advancing new models of sustainable social innovation. With capitalism in its current form under scrutiny, social entrepreneurs’ use of cutting-edge market analysis and management to achieve social good can provide a much-needed impulse for long-term thinking and business practices.

 

The community will be represented, for example, by Yasmina Filali, whose Fondation Orient- Occident provides job training and social support to refugees in Morocco or Jordan Kassalow of Vision Spring, who has provided 2,750,000 pairs of eyeglasses to the poorest populations in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Katherine Milligan, Head of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship said, “As business and government leaders seek innovative solutions to many of the systemic issues they face, social entrepreneurs are called upon to contribute to these solutions. These entrepreneurs are role models that bring to the Annual Meeting the passion, vision, boldness and experience that are essential in a world that is undergoing a leadership crisis.” 

 

Moreover, the Global Shapers Community is a network of more than 450 city-based Hubs developed and led by young people who are exceptional in their potential, achievements and drive to make a contribution to their communities. Currently, the Global Shapers community has over 6,000 members.

 

Meanwhile, Shaping Davos, a series of sessions that feature local solutions to global issues, connects citizens in 20 cities on every continent to conversations taking place at the Annual Meeting. 

These interactions are led by Global Shapers in Abuja, Baku, Bangalore, Beirut, Belfast, Bhopal, Budapest, Chennai, Gaborone, Kyiv, London, Monterrey, Muscat, Paris, Portland, Quito, Seattle, Tunis, Vancouver and Yaroslavl, thereby enabling youth and others active in their communities to join the conversation with leaders from business, the public sector, international organizations and academia. Discussion topics cover education, unemployment, social inclusion, innovations in cities and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

 

In meet the leader sessions, Global Shapers will discuss pressing issues with heads of state or government, global business and civil society leaders.

 

In the run-up to the Annual Meeting 2017, millennials will share their expectations of the meeting through a social media campaign under the #WorldWeShape.

 Adeyemi Babington Asaye, Head of the Global Shapers Community, noted, “Young people have an essential role to play in shaping the future. Global Shapers in Davos-Klosters bring the voice of youth as well as that of the communities and cities in which they are active,”

 

The Young Global Leaders, a community of more than 800 leaders from over 100 countries, will be represented by 173 members at the Annual Meeting. This group includes human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, the mayor of Quito, Peru Mauricio Rodas and the Pakistani documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, the first artist to serve as Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting.

 

“Young Global Leaders are entrepreneurial and inspiring leaders who arrive in Davos at this pivotal moment to accelerate the impact of their organizations and YGL collaborations, and use the Forum’s platform to join their diverse talents to achieve more together than they could separately,” said John Dutton, Head of Foundations Team and Head of Young Global Leaders. 

With more than 3,000 participants from over 100 countries are to meet and take part in over 400 sessions, during the 47th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, under the theme 'Responsive and Responsible Leadership'. 

City Press

Infants die in droves due to negligence, poor healthcare facilities

Zinhle Mapumulo, City Press2015-05-24 15:00

Thousands of babies could still be alive if hospital workers had followed simple guidelines. Picture: CONRAD BORNMAN/Foto24

Many of the deaths could have been avoided had healthcare workers in public hospitals followed simple guidelines, such as monitoring the heart rate of the foetus and looking after the overall health of the mother.More than 80 000 newborn babies died ­within just two years as a result of negligence and the poor quality of healthcare in public hospitals, a report has concluded.

This shocking revelation is contained in the Saving Babies ­report, compiled by the Medical Research Council, which traced the number of live births, neonatal deaths and causes of deaths of newborn babies at South Africa’s 588 health ­facilities between January 2012 and December 2013.

Out of the 82 453 deaths recorded in the report, about 44% ­occurred at district hospitals and the ­majority of them were stillbirths.

Researchers found that unexplained stillbirths, spontaneous preterm labour – when a woman goes into ­labour before her planned delivery date – and intrapartum ­asphyxia (oxygen deprivation) were the most common causes of deaths in district hospitals and community healthcare centres.

Professor Robert ­Pattinson, co-author of the report and director of maternal and infant healthcare strategies unit at the Medical Research Council, said: “Most of the deaths due to intrapartum asphyxia could have been avoided if the quality of intrapartum care was improved.”

He explained: “Improving the quality of intrapartum care has to do with improving the knowledge and skills of healthcare providers; ensuring that facilities have the appropriate equipment and human resources; and that there is an ­efficient, reliable emergency transport system.”

A number of initiatives aimed at improving newborn infant, child and maternal healthcare at district level have been introduced by the national department of health in the past five years, including the introduction of district clinical specialist teams – obstetricians and gynaecologists, paediatricians, family physicians, anaesthetists, midwives and paediatric nurses.

The highly specialised teams that mostly began work in 2012 were tasked with reducing the maternal, infant and child death rates in all of South Africa’s 52 districts as soon as possible. However, their impact, based on the latest official statistics of newborn deaths, has not been that great.

There was no significant difference in terms of the number of babies who died during late stages of pregnancy, birth or in the first four weeks of life in 2010 to 2011 and 2012 to 2013.

The causes of death were also generally the same and, in fact, most of the deaths could have been avoided if proper prevention measures were followed.

However, department of health spokesperson Joe Maila said some efforts had been made to reduce early neonatal mortalities in South Africa.

At the district level, he said, government has implemented Essential Steps to Manage Obstetric Emergencies training.

“We have already seen a 35% reduction in early neonatal deaths. We will expand this training to all districts,” Maila said.

Pattinson agreed with Maila, adding that, at face value, it may seem like nothing has changed, but there have been some ­improvements at different levels of healthcare.

However, he stressed that a lot of work still needs to be done, not just at district level, but at academic hospitals as well. “The key aspect is to improve the quality of care – this ­applies to all levels of care,” he said.

Although only 10% of neonatal deaths occurred at tertiary and central hospitals, researchers raised concerns about the unprofessional behaviour of doctors who failed to respond to calls of duty

TimesLive

IN FULL: Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande on 2017 university fees

Tmg Digital | 2016-09-19 12:44:06.0

Blade Nzimande. File photo.
Image by: TEBOGO LETSIE

Minister of Higher Education and Training‚ Dr. BE Nzimande's statement on Government's 2017 fee support to students from poor‚ working and middle class families.

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Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media‚ and thank you very much for making time to be here for this important announcement.

• Fees moratorium will protect the rich: Nzimande 

Our public universities are a significant national asset. They empower the next generation with skills and knowledge‚ and contribute significantly to the ability of our economy to compete globally through innovative and appropriate research.

• ‘We are shutting down‚’ vows new Wits SRC president 

Our universities currently face serious challenges in terms of funding. At the same time‚ large numbers of South Africans are currently finding it difficult to access post-school education because of the financial challenges they as individuals or as families face.

Government is aware of these challenges and takes them very seriously. Indeed‚ government remains firmly committed to progressively realise free post-school education for the poor and working class‚ as called for by our Constitution‚ and to assist middle class families who are unable to pay.

This is demonstrated by the creation of the Presidential Commission of inquiry into higher education and training funding‚ which includes universities‚ and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges‚ as well as the substantial increases in funding to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme since 2010.

The task of the Presidential Commission is to advise on systemic and long-term measures to achieve a far-reaching reconstitution of the entire post-school education and training funding system‚ thereby enabling South Africans to access higher education even if they come from poor and working class families.

The Higher Commission recommendations will hopefully also contribute significantly to building and strengthening our universities and TVET colleges – and the Commission should be allowed to complete its vitally important task.

In the interim‚ while we all wait for the recommendations of this Commission‚ our university system has to continue functioning‚ producing skills for the economy‚ and empowering young South Africans and students from countries around the world‚ in particular the South African Development Community (SADC).

Currently‚ our universities face an extremely difficult financial situation. The effects of last year’s moratorium on fee adjustments and the extra costs associated with insourcing have both added to these challenges.

Our immediate and pressing task is to ensure that as we continue to improve access to post-school education and strengthen the quality of learning and teaching‚ we do not erode the financial sustainability of the sector.

Our economy is currently weak and our fiscal position parlous. The tax burden has been rising in recent years‚ and we must preserve the fiscal space to fund government’s policy agenda in future years. This means that any funding government mobilises to support the pressing challenges in higher education‚ it would need to reprioritize from other government programmes.

We understand the legitimate student concerns about the affordability of university education. At the same time‚ we need to ensure that those who can afford to pay must pay.

Equally importantly‚ the post-school budget has to cover students in technical and vocational education and training‚ while we also face the challenge of building a community college sector to provide educational alternatives for 18 million South Africans who are unable to study at university.

In other words‚ our job as government requires a number of very delicate balancing acts.

To achieve our objectives‚ we must continue arguing for as significant a budget allocation as possible for post-school education. Indeed‚ a look at this year’s budget shows that this sector received the largest increase in funding of any government department.

Higher Education and Training this year received an additional 18% for 2016/17‚ with an average annual increase of 9.8% across the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period up until 2018/19.

From R42 billion in the 2015/16 financial year‚ the Department’s budget is set to rise to R55.3 billion in 2018/19.

Government has this year provided R1.9 billion of the R2.3 billion shortfall resulting from the subsidization of the 2016 university fee increase. More than R4.5 billion in the 2016/17 financial year has been reprioritised to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

Expanded funding is targeted to support 205 000 students entering universities for the first time or continuing this year‚ and a further 200 000 students at TVET colleges. This means that a total of 405 000 students would receive government support to access universities and colleges in 2016.

The National Skills Fund (NSF) has allocated R1.393 billion in 2016 towards funding undergraduate and postgraduate bursaries in scarce and critical skills. This funding is directed at meeting the full cost of study for over 13 500 undergraduate and 1 200 postgraduate students enrolled in programmes at our 26 public universities.

In addition‚ and perhaps most importantly‚ we must also ensure that we strengthen and empower those sectors‚ which are charged with training‚ and skilling people either who choose not to go to university or who do not have the opportunity‚ but nevertheless must be assisted to become useful contributors to the economy.

To support this aim‚ the NSF has allocated R626.795 million in 2016 towards supporting TVET college students in occupational programmes with a specific emphasis on occupations in high demand and R1.237 billion towards funding students in workplace-based learning.

Artisan development is also key on our agenda to address the National Development Plan target of 30 000 artisans per annum by 2030. Dependent on the artisan trade‚ it costs between R350 000 – R400 000 over a period of three years to train an artisan. This year the target is to register 30 750 new artisan learners‚ which will amount to approximately R4.6 billion in artisan learner grant funding through the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs).

It is indeed a fine balancing act and we must all participate‚ whether at the national level‚ in university administrations‚ or as student leaders – because it is the nature of balancing acts that if one falls‚ all fall.

Last month I received recommendations from the Council on Higher Education (CHE) on university fees for 2017. I have studied these recommendations‚ consulted with university vice-chancellors and council chairs‚ various student organisations‚ organised labour‚ faith communities‚ political organisations and government.

Ladies and gentleman‚ the issues at stake are complex‚ and there are differing opinions and arguments across the system.

The CHE argued for a consumer price index (CPI) based fee adjustment for 2017‚ while many university leaders have made a strong case that an 8% agreement (CPI+2%) is essential.

On the other hand‚ some students have called for a moratorium on all fee adjustments until the outcome of the Presidential Commission is announced‚ whilst others are supporting government’s measures to assist students from poor‚ working and middle class families‚ which includes the “missing middle”.

Currently‚ the authority for determining fee adjustments resides with University Councils. The CHE has suggested to their leadership that the system will be best served by a national approach. However‚ at the same time we do recognise the differentiated nature of the system and that a one-size fits all approach may not lead to sustainability in the system over the long run.

Government is alive to the legitimate cries of students regarding fees and to those of the universities who must continue to pay for specialist books and equipment in foreign currency and ensure that academic‚ support and service staff are adequately paid for their work.

As we wrestle with how to respond comprehensively‚ the equally critical building and transforming of our post-apartheid universities has to be supported. Starving our universities of funding is not the way to go‚ which is effectively what another across-the-board fee rise moratorium against the current fiscal backdrop would mean at this point.

While the Presidential Commission does its important work in developing proposals for a long-term funding model‚ universities will not be able to operate with less funds than what they already have. Everything is more expensive today than it was this time last year.

That is the reality of inflation.

We have looked at the challenges at hand from all sides and have concluded that the best approach would be to allow universities individually to determine the level of increase that their institutions will require to ensure that they continue to operate effectively and at least maintain existing quality – with the caution that this has to also take into account affordability to students‚ and therefore has to be transparent‚ reasonable and related to inflation-linked adjustments. Our recommendation is that fee adjustments should not go above 8%.

To ensure that such inflation-linked fee adjustments on the 2015 fee baseline are affordable to financially needy students‚ government is committed to finding the resources to support children of all poor‚ working and middle class families – those with a household income of up to R600 000 per annum – with subsidy funding to cover the gap between the 2015 fee and the adjusted 2017 fee at their institution. This will be done for fee increments up to 8%.

This will in effect mean that all NSFAS qualifying students‚ as well as the so-called “missing middle” – that is‚ students whose families earn above the NSFAS threshold but who are unable to support their children to access higher education‚ will experience no fee increase in 2017. Government will pay for the fee adjustment. This will bring huge relief to nurses‚ teachers‚ police‚ social workers‚ and other parents who work in occupations that do not earn huge salaries‚ and who have children at university. This will apply to students at universities and TVET colleges.

Administrative mechanisms will be developed and students informed on how to apply for the gap-funding grant before the end of this academic year.

There are many students from upper middle class and well-off families‚ as well as students on full company bursaries in our institutions who can afford to pay the adjusted 2017 fees‚ and we expect them to do so.

It is very unclear to government why families who can afford private schools should‚ under the current circumstances‚ be receiving further state subsidies for their children at universities.

To subsidise these students would require taking funding from the poor to support cheaper higher education for the wealthy‚ which is not justifiable in a context of inequality in our country. We cannot subsidise the child of a cleaner or unemployed person in the same way as we subsidise the child of an advocate‚ doctor or investment banker.

While NSFAS will continue to provide loans and bursaries to poor students‚ the Department of Higher Education and Training and universities will continue to mobilise institutional and private sector financial support to enable affordable financial aid options for the “missing middle” students.

I have constituted the Ministerial Task Team on funding support for the poor and “missing middle” students‚ which is developing a model that will be tested in 2017 to provide affordable support to these students. We will continue to look for other ways of supporting financially needy students not covered by NSFAS‚ whilst a long-term solution is being developed to raise sufficient funding from the public sector‚ private sector and other sources to fund “missing middle” students at universities and TVET colleges.

Universities must urgently‚ effectively and comprehensively advance our shared transformation as articulated in the 2015 Durban Statement on Transformation‚ and provide annual reports on their progress. Moreover‚ universities are expected to pay all of their staff‚ both permanent and contracted‚ a fair living wage.

I thank you.

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SADTU

SADTU SCORES VICTORY FOR UNPAID TEACHERS AND THOSE WHOSE SERVICES WERE UNLAWFULLY TERMINATED.

16 December 2016

The South African Democratic Teachers Union has scored a major victory in the Port Elizabeth Labour Court following an application it made to compel the Education Department to pay the salaries of teachers and to reverse a decision of the former Acting Head of Department Ms Sizakele Netshiphalala to terminate the services of educators she claimed were appointed irregularly.

The department has over many years failed to pay salaries timeously or at all. One of the educators SADTU represented had not been paid her salary for 11 months when SADTU launched the urgent application. She and many others have since the launch of the application been paid after the Department requested a postponement in October 2016. As a result of this application many other members of SADTU have reported that their salaries have now been paid.

Prior to the matter being heard on the 14^th December 2016, SADTU and the Department reached an agreement in terms whereof:

1.1.         The department undertook to ensure that every educator who was appointed, assumed duty and rendered a service and who has not been paid will be paid her or his salary within 45 days. This means that the department now has 45 to ensure that no educator is owed a salary.

1.2.         The letters terminating the services of 3 educators which the department sought to terminate alleging that they were not properly appointed are withdrawn. These educators are qualified educators recommended by the School Governing Bodies after the interview process. The Head of Department had approved their appointments but later turned around alleging that they did not have the degrees specified in the advertisement. Although the educators do not have those specific degrees they have the degrees which meet the requirements for appointment as educators.

In terms of the settlement agreement which was made an order of the court these educators will now be put in other posts in the schools in which they presently are or transferred to others schools.

In terms of the court order SADTU is required to provide a list to the department of all others educators affected by the former HoD’s decision to terminate their services within 20 days where-after the department must make a determination in respect of each educator.

The court order further states that these educators will be placed or transferred to other schools. Therefore no qualified educator will lose their jobs. 

SADTU therefore calls upon all educators regardless of whether they are SADTU members or not and who have not yet been paid or have received letters of termination to visit their nearest SADTU branch and provide their information to enable SADTU to compile and submit the list to the department.

SADTU will not hesitate to enforce this court order should the department not meet its obligation and fully comply with order of court.

As SADTU celebrates this victory of her members and educators in general, SADTU wishes to restate her resolve as per Pillar of Vision 2030 to vigorously fight and defend the rights of members. The outcome of this application is evidence of this resolve.

SADTU Eastern Cape Provincial Task Team

HeraldLive

Eastern Cape bottom of class – again

 January 5, 2017 Guy Rogers and Angela Daniels 450 Views

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga
Picture: Sunday Times

Matric results slightly higher, but five districts score pass rates under 50%

The Eastern Cape’s 2016 matric results are slightly up from last year but the province is still at the bottom of the class nationally.

Graaff-Reinet achieved the top marks in physical science nationally and Cradock was top overall in the Eastern Cape – but the province as a whole foundered, with the only five districts nationally that obtained a pass rate of under 50%.

Announcing the National Senior Certificate exam results last night in Johannesburg, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga hailed the improvement in science and maths marks by black pupils and the overall improvement in the pass rate, despite a record 828 000 pupils who wrote the exams.

Focusing on the overall pass rate, inclusive of progressed pupils – those pushed through to matric after failing Grade 11 more than once – she said seven of the nine provinces had improved, with only KwaZulu- Natal and Mpumalanga slipping. The Eastern Cape improved from 56.8% in 2015 to 59.3%.

The pass rate of the Eastern Cape, which continues to languish at the bottom of the pile, was 3.2 percentage points lower than that of Limpopo, which came in second last, and a whopping 28.9 percentage points below front-runner the Free State.

The Eastern Cape also improved when progressed pupils were excluded from the results, with a 63.3% pass rate, up 1.1% from 2015 – but still found itself stone last out of all the provinces.

Even more worrying to provincial legislature education portfolio committee chairman Fundile Gade was the fact that 10 000 matric pupils dropped out during the course of the year in the province.

“We had registered 92 000 pupils at the beginning of the year, but only 82 000 wrote,” he said.

“My first concern is those missing 10 000. Where did they go?”

Gade said pupils who had dropped out had “the potential to contribute to the levels of illiteracy in the province”. He also said that interventions put in place following the dismal 2015 results seemed not to have worked and a major focus needed to be on the functionality of schools.

“There are 277 schools [in the province] that are dysfunctional and they let us down,” he said.

Another concern was the five districts in the province that had less than a 50% pass rate.

“My greatest interest tomorrow will be seeing if those five districts fall into the 12 districts that do not have district directors,” Gade said.

Praising Holy Cross in Mthatha which produced the country’s top pupil in the Quintile 3 category, Gade said the institutional leadership of the province should look at the training of principals.

He said it was clear that with good leadership schools could achieve.

“It was not easy for Holy Cross.

“I was there after June and they were complaining of a lack of 12 to 14 classrooms, but they achieved the top pupil in the country.”

DA shadow education minister Edmund van Vuuren said while he was overjoyed at the 2.2 percentage point increase in the pass rate, he was sad that five of the worst districts in the country were from the Eastern Cape.

He said a major problem in the province was the implementation of plans.

“Every year, they [education officials] put good plans on the table but there are problems implementing them,” he said.

“If they had implemented them, we would have seen a higher increase.”

Van Vuuren made reference to the education department’s promises to assist progressed pupils, the rationalisation of schools and visits to poor-performing schools.

“They [education officials] promised to visit 4 150 schools but, by the end of June, had only been to 343.

“If they had visited all of them and seen what problems they had, it could have made a big difference.

“They also had a plan to introduce mentors, former principals, to poor-performing schools but only did this in late October and early November. “Now how can you expect these mentors to help those schools achieve their goals so late?”

The department’s targets of a 1% absenteeism rate for teachers and a 2% rate for pupils had also not been met.

NMMU education expert Shervani Pillay said the province’s results were deeply disappointing.

She said that for years systemic and structural problems had been pointed to as the reason for the Eastern Cape’s poor performance but it was time to let go of that excuse. “We see the same problems in other provinces that have managed to improve,” Pillay said

She said poor implementation of good plans was to blame.

“Nothing substantive is being done. There is still a shortage of teachers [and] teachers not being paid, and this is not being addressed.”

Pointing to the many protests against a lack of teachers, she said: “You can’t have top-class interventions when you don’t have enough teachers.

“There needs to be a more considered approach to interventions.

“The national plans are good, but how do you bring them together? There is shallow implementation.

“The time has come for a much more deep-seated, qualitative approach.”

Motshekga said the matric results were an important barometer for her department as they sought to shape and improve the country’s education system.

Although the results had improved, it was clear that to make a sustained difference the quality of learning and teaching in the early grades had to be improved, she said.

Speaking in support of the department’s controversial progressed learner policy, she said last year’s matrics had included the largest number of progressed pupils since the policy was instituted in 2013.

The overall improvement in the pass rate despite this factor showed the department was on the right track, she said.

Instead of being relegated to high school dropouts, the progressed pupils who had now passed had the opportunity to further their education at university or technical and vocational colleges.

“We made this intervention in line with the call by the National Development Plan for a 90% increase in learner retention.

“An inclusive education system contributes to an inclusive economy.”

Hailing a “system on the rise”, the minister said 33 521 pupils had achieved marks of 60% or more for maths over the 30 314 in 2014 and 31 812 in 2015.

“This is important as it means more learners get to qualify for maths-oriented programmes at university and they are hence equipped to fill critical gaps in the economy.”

She said by far the biggest movement within this area was the improvement by black pupils.

Of the 1 709 more pupils who achieved more than 60% for maths in 2016 over 2015, 1 308 of them were black pupils.

“The trend points to a narrowing of the serious race-based inequalities in schools,” Motshekga said.