Rise in pass rate welcomed

NELSON Mandela Bay schools yesterday welcomed the marginal improvement in the Eastern Cape’s overall matric pass rate and expressed optimism for both their own results for 2014 and the new academic year.

This follows last night’s announcement by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga that the province’s senior certificate pass rate for 2014 had improved from 64.9% to 65.4%.

The Eastern Cape, which ranked last in the country, was among a few provinces nationally which showed an improvement in the matric pass rate. Motshekga, who revealed that Cradock was the best performing district in the Eastern Cape with a pass rate above 80%, also announced that the national pass rate had dipped to 75.8% from 78.2% last year.

“It’s great news. We need that kind of news. We have been trailing behind as a province, so this is the kind of news that we appreciate,” Vulumzi High School principal Cosmo Baartman said of the provincial results.