It may not be top of the class but the Eastern Cape is for the first time in eight years not scraping the bottom of the barrel and has switched places with Limpopo, which has been declared this year’s worst-performing province.
“The Eastern Cape has taken off,” basic education minister Angie Motshekga said during a live broadcast of the matric results in Johannesburg on Thursday night.
“It should continue on this trajectory because we believe that it is about to receive its cruising height,” she said, also noting some of the challenges that faced the province.
Managing to achieve 2018’s biggest improvement of 5.6 percentage points, matriculants in the Eastern Cape joined the 70%-club – with a 70.6% pass rate.
Motshekga also announced that Nelson Mandela Bay was the best-performing district in the province.
SA’s overall matric pass rate was 78.2% – an improvement on the 75.1% in 2017, and 2016’s 72.5%.
In an interview on SABC later on Thursday night, Motshekga said she believed that this achievement was the best result in democratic South Africa, taking into account the large number of “progressed” pupils (those promoted to Grade 12 despite having failed Grade 11).
The class of 2018 also achieved 172,040 bachelor degree, 141,700 diploma and 86,790 higher certificate passes.
Limpopo was announced as the only province with provincial results below 70%, achieving 69.4%.
The Northern Cape suffered a 2.3% decline to come in at seventh with 73.3%.
“I really have full sympathy for the Northern Cape,” Motshekga said.
“It was a really difficult year with all of the disruptive protests and kids kept out of class for periods of up to six months.”
She said KwaZulu-Natal, with an improvement of 3.3 percentage points, achieved 76.2% with Mpumalanga at number five with 79% – a 4.2 percentage-point improvement compared to the previous year.
North West was the fourthbest-performing province with 81.1%.
The top three provinces are:
● Gauteng: 87.9% – an improvement of 2.8 percentage points.
● Free State: 87.5% (a 1.4 percentage point improvement)
● Western Cape: 81.5% (a decline of 1.3 percentage points).
The top 10 districts came from only two provinces, Free State and Gauteng.
“It is unprecedented that the top 10-performing districts are from only two provinces,” Motshekga said.
“And it is the first time the top four achieved more than 80%. And six of them have broken the 90% ceiling.”
Senior lecturer in the faculty of education at Nelson Mandela University Professor Shervani Pillay said matric pupils should be congratulated, particularly Eastern Cape matriculants for exceeding the expected 64.1% pass rate.
“Learners and teachers should be congratulated [but] the bachelor pass rate is still low so we need to focus on the quality of the passes.”
She said on the basis of just the pass rate there was an improvement but more analysis needed to be carried out about where and which schools should improve.
DA education spokesperson and PE northern areas constituency leader Edmund van Vuuren said he was ecstatic.
“After nearly 10 years in the legislature it is wonderful to witness a pass rate of more than 70% in the Eastern Cape.
“It is clear that various interventions have worked and we need to give praise to those who helped make this positive change.”
He said it was evident that the regional department of education had made positive impacts on the state of education in the Eastern Cape.
“It has not happened before [that the pass mark reached 70%] and officials must be commended.
“The intervention programmes and the money spent have been worth it.
“There are a lot of challenges [in the Eastern Cape] but we are not the last province any more,” he said.
ANC regional spokesperson Gift Ngqondi said the ANC was extremely happy with the results which showed that hard work on behalf of teachers, pupils and parents.
“We must thank our teachers for their hard work under extremely difficult conditions.
“This is our greatest achievement so far,” he said.
Richard Draai of the Northern Areas Education Forum said he was happy to see an improvement in the pass rate percentage.
“We are moving in the right direction but we need to look beyond matric to improve more.
“We do experience social ills but the majority of our children are not bad.
“We have started on the right track but we need to look at other issues affecting our children in their education, including making sure we have enough teachers in our classes and reconsider children with special needs being in mainstream schools.
“Primary schools need to be looked at. The level of education there can be improved, with plans in place needing to happen,” Draai said.
At a breakfast gathering hosted by the basic education department in Johannesburg earlier on Thursday, Motshekga highlighted some of the challenges pupils at government schools have had to overcome.
The annual meeting with the minister honours top-performing matriculants at state schools, ahead of the release of the individual matric examination results on Friday.
Motshekga said those who had performed well did so because of their dedication‚ hard work and commitment to studying.
“No-one said‚ ‘I prayed‚ I fasted or went to see a seer’. They were all focused and worked hard.”
She said when she asked the top achievers what their secret for success was‚ the answer had always been hard work.
“They never say they don’t know or ‘I am a gifted child’‚ actually. All of them for the past 15 years give me one consistent answer.”
“They are the best of the best.”
Motshekga congratulated the country’s top young minds: “We are expecting the best moving forward. You are going to come up with solutions. You are going to take us forward.”
The pupils who attended the breakfast with their parents only knew they were there because they had passed matric with flying colours‚ but were unsure in which subjects they had excelled.
They will officially know their individual results on Friday.