Better, but still at the bottom

EASTERN Cape matriculants were once again at the bottom of the matric class, with a marginally improved pass rate of 65.4% – still a far cry from the provincial Education Department’s target of 70%, which it failed to achieve last year as well.

Despite the minor increase of half a percentage point from last year’s 64.9%, the Eastern Cape was still placed last – even after the department’s concerted efforts during the year to improve results.

The Cradock district, which is usually one of the province’s best-performing districts and last year’s second best district behind Port Elizabeth, was the Eastern Cape’s top performing district this year at 82.3% – a significant increase from last year’s 73.5%.

Nationally, 75.8% of the 688 660 matrics who wrote the exams passed, with just 28% passing with 50% or more and able to go on to university.

The national pass rate fell by 2.5 percentage points from last year’s 78.2%, the highest pass rate since 1994.