The NDP Cohort in South Africa’s Education System
The National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) congratulates the National Senior Certificate class of 2025. These results indicate a positive and stabilising trend in national matric outcomes, reflecting sustained efforts across the education system over the past decade. It has removed perennial under-performers among the 75 districts.
This cohort of learners holds a historical significance. It is the first group of learners whose schooling journey was exposed to the NECT programming, which also started in 2014 – a year and a half after the adoption of the National Development Plan (NDP).
Learner achievement stems from the collective efforts of learners, teachers, school leaders, families, communities and the multifaceted education system. Throughout its existence, the NECT has supported these efforts by bolstering the capacity of the state. This included designing and delivering large-scale programmes, contributing to system stability, providing curriculum support, effectively utilising data and promoting teaching effectiveness through structured teaching and learning programmes.
Over the past decade, the NECT has collaborated with government, civil society and the private sector to raise over R3 billion to support the education system. This has involved particularly strengthening the 75 districts to better support foundational learning, especially in reading, mathematics and science. These efforts aimed to equip districts and schools with the tools they need to plan, deliver, monitor and support teaching and learning, from early grades to senior phase.
The national system’s performance arguably reflects the 14 years of systemic contributions designed and co-delivered by NECT and the Department of Basic Education.
These initiatives reached all nine provinces and over 92% of schools nationwide. Key contributions include:
- 53 (of 75) education districts were directly supported to improve their operations whilst all the 75 districts accessed and used some national initiatives.
- Over 3800 District Officials received coaching, mentorship and upskilling on various key educational polices, programmes and global management developments.
- 561 (62%) of circuit managers and 658 subject advisors received repeated curriculum management training.
- 22 812 schools were reached across all 9 provinces through these initiatives.
- More than 140 000 teachers and managers reached across the system.
- More than 35.2 million learner and teacher support materials printed and distributed across the country.
- More than 50 technical assistants deployed into DBE to drive the design and delivery of critical policies and programmes.
The NECT extends its congratulations to every learner in the Class of 2025. We also acknowledge the unwavering support of teachers, principals, district officials and education leaders throughout their schooling journey. The NECT remains steadfast in its commitment to collaborating with the Department of Basic Education (DBE), provincial education departments and their private and social partners to fortify public education for generations to come.
The NECT is a public benefit organisation established by government, private sector, teacher unions and civil society in response to the NDP. At the business breakfast launch on 16 July 2013, President Cyril Ramaphosa, the then deputy chairman of the National Planning Commission, congratulated the founding partners for the excellent work of pulling together the key role players to turn the NDP into a tangible programme.
