# ANNUAL REPORT: 2016

In my position as Chief Executive Officer, it is a pleasure for me to report on the activities of the Governing Body Foundation for the Financial Year 2016, which also coincides with the calendar year 2016.

The Governance of the Foundation is in the hands of a Board of Trustees, which is currently made up as follows: Adv N Naidoo (Chair), C Buck (vice-chair), L Rousseau (Treasurer), TJ Gordon (Chief Executive Officer); and Trustees P. Geswindt (Eastern Cape), D Redelinghuys (Gauteng), A Graaf (KZN), and R Stevens (Western Cape).

- 1. INTRODUCTORY COMMENT

An annual report can do little other than touch on the highlights of the period under review, while avoiding glossing over the challenges. This report will attempt to fulfil that mandate, and it is against this background that the following objective information and subjective viewpoints are proffered in respect of 2016.

- 2. STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENTS ONTHE EDUCATION FRONT

There is wide consensus that 2016 was, however one may wish to view it in retrospect, neither an easy nor comfortable year in the education sector. Several aspects which had bedevilled higher education in 2015 spilled over into the schooling sector in 2016 and official, media and general public responses left education reeling in a somewhat beleaguered state and with a number of questions still unanswered. While on the surface this does not appear to bode well for the sector, it has been encouraging to note that attitudes and approaches have generally taken on a more positive hue with the ushering in of 2017.

The following is a personal selection of those aspects from 2016:

- 2.1 Attacks on the credibility of the matric exam
- There were a number of what we view as unfortunate, largely uncalled-for and not-fully-informed attacks on the credibility of the matric exam and its attendant results at the end of 2016. We are concerned at this development. It is certainly in the interests of education, we believe, when all is said and done, that South Africa has a strong, credible final examination at the end of its schooling cycle. It is good and important for the country, the education system and society, but most of all for the young people who have to go through the system. Anything we can do to protect and strengthen the exam must be done. The last thing we need is to go down the road of the so-called Latin-Americanization of education, where 40% of the school-going population ends up in the independent sector, while the other 60% have to languish in a poor, under- resourced state system, shorn of the expertise and drive of the most aspirational learners and parents. One of the things that saves us from such a scenario is a credible, widely-recognized matric certificate. We need to work very hard for its preservation.
- 2.2 The selling of posts
- Two years ago, education in South Africa was rocked by allegations in the media that our largest teacher union was complicit in the selling of teaching posts, and in particular promotion posts, in public schools across the country. The Minister of Education moved with commendable speed to put in place a Ministerial Task Team to investigate the allegations. The publication of the report of this Task Team was considerably delayed by threats of litigation from the union concerned, but in mid-2016 a slightly sanitised version of the report, together with various disclaimers from the union, saw the light of day.