Cape Town - The Western Cape’s Kelly Prowse from Rustenburg Girls High school in Rondebosch beamed with pride as she shared the stage with KwaZulu-Natal pupil Husnaa Haffejee as the overall top performing matriculants in the country.
The class of 2022, which has been dubbed the most “unique” due to different adversities including Covid-19, load shedding and protest actions, produced a 80.1% pass rate compared to 76.4% the previous year.
This was an improvement of 3.7%, the second highest since 2019, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Thursday as she announced the National Senior Certificate (NSC) results.
The Free State was the best performing province achieving an 88.5% pass rate followed by Gauteng at 84.4%, KwaZulu-Natal, the best improved province at 83.0%, and Western Cape with 81.4%, up from 81.2% in 2021.
The Western Cape saw a clean sweep in quintile 5 as Prowse took first place, Simone Louw from Bloemhof High School in Stellenbosch took second place and Kenneth Janson from Paarl Boys High School, third.
Top maths candidates were Prowse and Jason Frederik de Villiers from Ron- debosch Boys’ High clinched third place.
Four districts in the province performed between 70% and 79%. There were also four districts that performed at 80% and above.
In quintile 3, Athenkosi Khonzani from the Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) took second place.
About 218 730 distinctions were achieved and KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga were the main contributors towards passes with distinctions.
Angie Motshekga said: “The Class of 2022 has clearly demonstrated that with all requisite support and intervention programmes, we can make it. We must prioritise our interventions on teaching and learning losses. Support and intervention programmes must be implemented across the system.
“The unquestionable resilience our school community has shown, against such a devastating pandemic; and other challenges, such as the persistent load shedding, and sporadic service delivery protests, cannot go by unnoticed.”
Deputy Minister of Basic Education Reginah Mhaule said the learners have endured a lot to get here.
“The sector did everything in their power to support the pupils. We have collectively, pupils, parents, teachers and everyone triumphed the doom and gloom which engulfed our sector. Those who did not make it there will be a
Equal Education’s Head of Research Elizabeth Biney said the performance was a positive sign of the recovery of the education system and sector.
“The class of 2022 has maintained the increasing trend in bachelor passes, with a 4.9% increase from the previous year. Increases in both the overall pass rate and number of bachelor passes showcase both the resilience of this cohort and the effectiveness of the DBE’s interventions and extra support to recover the learning losses created by Covid-19.”
National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) said while it was fitting to congratulate the education department and the exams directorate specifically, it was their teachers who deserved special recognition.
“Teachers went beyond the call of duty during the 2022 academic year to ensure that learners were appropriately prepared.
“Many teachers have hardly enjoyed a weekend or holiday as they pushed to catch-up and prepare learners for this all important exit exam.”
MEC David Maynier said raising the pass rate this year was an outstanding achievement.
“Their success has two key ingredients: Firstly, our candidates received incredible support from their teachers, parents, and district offices, who pulled out all stops to make sure our learners could succeed.
“The second, and most important, key ingredient is the unbeatable spirit of the Class of 2022.
“Faced with the challenges of the pandemic and load-shedding, they could have been tempted to give up.
“But they showed incredible grit, and gave their all,” said Maynier.
Cape Times