Johannesburg - It is important to assist students with access to education, but equally important to assist them with success, South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande said on Sunday.
Speaking at Avalon Cemetery in Soweto, Johannesburg during an event to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of former SACP general secretary and stalwart Joe Slovo’s death, Nzimande said the party congratulated the National Senior Certificate class of 2017.
"Universities are very important, but they are not the only important avenue of higher education and training. Technical and vocational education and training, or TVET colleges, are also very important. To those who did not make it, the SACP says do not despair; repetition is the mother of learning. There are also other alternatives to success," he said.
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The SACP was also looking forward to the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA) and the Progressive Youth Alliance playing their role in "making education and success in education fashionable".
"It is important to assist students with access. It is equally important to assist them with success. Student activism must therefore streamline a strong element of academic support.
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"We want to take this opportunity to express our party’s commitment to the imperative of a progressive roll-out of free education to learners and students from poor and working class households. This is why it is very important for the announcement made by the president on 16 December and related sources of funding to be clarified as a matter of urgency," Nzimande said.