He encouraged them to aim for the stars as they venture into higher education and training.
“We have watched how generations of our children have excelled in their matric exams and this can only translate into a better and much improved South Africa.
“Education is the answer to most of our problems as a country,” he said.
Gungubele praised the Ekurhuleni South district for winning the most improved district category with a 83.1% pass rate, showing a 3.35% increase.
In general township schools that are part of the special intervention programme performed very well.
Ekurhuleni has the highest number of informal settlements and educators have to address knowledge gaps of learners that arrive in Gauteng to attend high school.
Gungubele, a former teacher, says the ever improving results were a clear demonstration that the youth of the region now understand the importance of education.
“You have done us proud and we are extremely proud of you. It is amazing how the results have improved over the years, considering that in 2009 the matric pass rate was a mere 61%,” he said.
The mayor is grateful to the educators, school governing bodies, the learners, government and other stakeholders for their role in ensuring that Ekurhuleni learners improve their performance.
The Department of Education has introduced the paperless programme and rolled out free WiFi to communities which have made an instant impact on the education system.
He encouraged those who failed not to lose hope but rather to give it another try. “Remember that it is not about how many times you fall, but rather how many times you are able to get up,” he says.
Meanwhile Gungubele has announced that the city will look at increasing the bursary fund to accommodate more young people going into the future.
The metro firmly believes that a community that doesn’t take care of its youth is doomed.
“We increased the number of beneficiaries of our community bursary scheme to a total of 810 intakes at a cost of 13, 8 million,” said Gungubele.
