“YOUR children are future professionals, artists, innovators, leaders, presidents and much more.”
DA leader Mmusi Maimane was speaking yesterday to grade 1 parents at the Mbikwa Cindi Community Hall in Daveyton, Ekurhuleni, after campaigning for the election.
Maimane slammed the education system, saying it was failing children. “It is sabotaging our children’s access to opportunity.
“It’s a crime against their future life prospects. We all still value an excellent education but our government does not.”
Maimane said 78% of pupils in Mzansi couldn’t read by the time they reached grade 4. “In three years’ time, statistics will tell us three in four of kids cannot understand what they are reading.
“Our country seems outraged for a while by the statistics but then nothing happens.
“In 12 years, I want our children to be walking away to universities and careers in a world we cannot even begin to imagine today. We hope all our children who start school today will finish in 2030.”
Maimane said on current figures, 49 of every 100 boys and girls who started school this year would not make matric.
