{"id":26837,"date":"2014-01-07T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-07T15:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/2014\/01\/highest-matric-pass-rate-in-20-years-but-east-cape-seriously-lagging\/"},"modified":"2014-01-07T17:32:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T15:32:00","slug":"highest-matric-pass-rate-in-20-years-but-east-cape-seriously-lagging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/highest-matric-pass-rate-in-20-years-but-east-cape-seriously-lagging\/","title":{"rendered":"Highest Matric Pass rate in 20 years \u2013 but East Cape seriously lagging"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

The national pass rate for the 2013 National Senior Certificate has increased by 4.3% to 78.2%, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced on Monday night. The figure is the highest since 1994.<\/p>\n

Announcing the highlights of the Class of 2013 matric results at the SABC studios in Auckland Park, Motshekga commended matriculants for their hard work and sleepless nights. Earlier, Motshekga acknowledged a Limpopo parent and school principal and a grandparent for the roles they played in the success of their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI congratulate the Class of 2013 for being the best class since the advent of democracy, and encourage every learner to go further than their predecessors and strive to excel in higher education, the workplace and in your general contributions as South African citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, I told the Class of 2012 that the world is their oyster and I want to repeat this to the Class of 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed the world is your oyster, go out there and make the best of this acquired qualification,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Motshekga said after\u00a0 562 122 full-time candidates sat down to write the 2013 matric exams \u2013 an increase of over 50 000 from 2012 \u2013 the 78.2% pass rate was a 4.3%\u00a0 increase from the 2012 pass rate of 73.9%.<\/p>\n

Over the past four years, the pass rate had been on a gradual increase \u2013 from 60.6% in 2009, 6.8% in 2010 and increased to 70.2% in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1995, when this cohort entered Grade 1, the national pass rate percentage was 53.4% and 19 years later, the national pass rate percentage is 78.2%.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we came into office [in 2009], we had targeted 75% [pass rate] by 2014. Now at 78.2%, we have surpassed our target with a year to go,\u201d Motshekga said.<\/p>\n

How provinces fared:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Free State led the pack and overtook Gauteng as the best performing with an overall pass rate of 87.4%, a 6.3% improvement from 2012\u2019s 81.1% average.<\/p>\n

Gauteng achieved 87.2% pass rate, up by 7.7% points\u00a0 from 83.9% in 2012.<\/p>\n

It was followed by the Western Cape, which recorded a pass rate improvement of 2.3% from 82.8% in 2012 to 87% this year.<\/p>\n

Mpumalanga achieved a 77.6% pass rate, up from 70% in 2012 \u2013 an impressive improvement of 7.6 percentage points.<\/p>\n

Motshekga said KwaZulu-Natal improved its pass rate from 73.1% in 2012 to 77.4% in 77.4% in 2013 \u2013 a 4.3% improvement.<\/p>\n

Northern Cape, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape<\/strong> had pass rates of 74.5%, 71.8% and 64.9%<\/strong> pass rates respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relatively good performance of Limpopo in the National Senior Certificate is encouraging. Compared to the relatively poor performance of Limpopo primary school learners, it is clear that Limpopo\u2019s secondary schools are doing an especially good job of producing quality results compared to the performance in lower grades,\u201d added Motshekga.\u00a0 \u2013 SANews.gov.za<\/p>\n

Editor<\/strong> \u2013 Congratulations to my daughter, Brittany, who passed with three distinctions.<\/em><\/p>\n

The following two tabs change content below.<\/span><\/p>\n