During the engagement with the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, DG Mweli congratulated the province on being the best performing province with their 90.6% pass rate for the Class of 2025. He expressed his gratitude to the entire school ecosystem for demonstrating amazing resilience regardless of the challenges and relentless adversity faced, comparing the province to a phoenix that has the ability to rise from the ashes: “You remained resolute, inspiring the entire country! At the heart of the meeting, based on priorities for the 7th Administration, is the interest of the learner. The focus should remain on 0-4-year-olds, and Grades R to 12 in every classroom and subject to making a difference at classroom level. Lastly, the Importance of the AGSA findings and recommendations cannot be understated as it plays a crucial role in providing the mirror for reflection to regularity auditing and service delivery issues,” he added.
DG Mweli noted that across provinces serious challenges are being observed in respect of systemic decline when learners transition from Grade 7 to 8, resulting in a drop in performance. A suggestion to deal with this issue is for subjects specialists across the various phases to work together to seamlessly scaffold assessment cognitive rigour throughout. Another issue is the neglect of Grade 8 at the expense of Grade 12 and often Grade 10 and 11. The appeal was for the circuit managers and subject advisors on school management teams to ensure that Grades 8 and 9 do not suffer neglect. On progression, DG added that learners are getting lost from Grade 10 to 12. We have anecdotal evidence, building up to empirical evidence of learners who repeat the grade more than once and then dropout as there is no intervention in performing districts and provinces.
The meeting was chaired by Dr Naledi Mbube-Mehana, DDG for Transformation Special Programmes, who echoed the praise for KZN as the top province during the strategic online retreat. On Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) she commended the province for its language vitality in terms of the Term 4 performance analysis, presenting key insights about isiZulu, the largest home language. The province performed at 99.8% with a high distinction rate, performing exceptionally well as far as the language is concerned with a national distinction rate at 22.3%. isiXhosa was also performing well, and the province has been identified as the trend setter for the other provinces in terms of takeaways. However, more work needs to be done to carry gains into the Senior and FET phase.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education HoD, Mr Nkosinathi Ngcobo, said that “although KZN did well in 2025, we must focus on the academic improvements of 2026, and not rest on our laurels. The profiling of the Class of 2026 has been completed and schools, this year, commenced a week earlier, especially for matrics, townships and rural schools owing to our committed principles. The lack of financial resources has not dampened the spirits of the entire education ecosystem, and we have succeeded against all odds, and will continue to do so. In respect of the FET phase challenges, it is necessary to intervene earlier, applying improved strategies and data analysis to ensure that most of the challenges are attended to. We are pleased that we can already see the positive impact of MTbBE within our province”.
Mr Mbongiseni Mazibuko and his management team presented the provincial presentation, expressing appreciation to the DBE as one of the contributors to the upward trajectory: “We are competing with ourselves, and not with the other provinces,” he added.