2023 matric class achieves highest pass rate since democracy with 82.9%

Matric

Cape Town — The matric class of 2023 have great reason to celebrate as they recorded the highest matric pass rate since South Africa became a democracy, passing with a total of 82.9%.

While learners will only find out their official results at their respective schools later on Friday morning, Department of Basic Education (DBE) Minister, Angie Motshekga, was at a results briefing in Randburg where she made the announcement for the official release of the 2023 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results.

Overall, the matric class of 2023 achieved a pass rate of 82.9%, an increase of 2.8% from the 2022 class (80.1%). According to SABC News, Motshekga was proud of the achievement of the learners who will progress to the next chapter of their lives, adding that this class faced a big struggle due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The cumulative effect of COVID-19 and the resultant learning losses and disengagement from education had a significant impact on this cohort.  The swift and collaborative responses of the Department of Basic Education, teachers, parents, our partners in education and South Africans at large, led to the development of a holistic recovery plan that, to a large degree, mitigated the negative impact of the achievements of the key learning milestones.” she said

As reported by IOL, each province recorded an increase in their pass rate, with Free State the best preforming province (89% pass rate – 0.5% increase from 2022), followed by KZN (86.4 – 3.4% increase from 2022). Limpopo had the best improvement from the previous year as they achieved a 79.5% pass rate – an increase of 7.4% from 2022.

Meanwhile, there was also a notable increase in the number of bachelor’s passes, with 282 894 candidates achieving a bachelors pass (40.9%), with a further 187 876 Diploma passes (27.2%), while non-fee paying schools had a 77.2% pass rate, with nearly 400 000 candidates passing.

Motshekga also praised the rural provinces for an increase in the number of bachelor passes compared to previous years.

“It is remarkable to note that the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo – the three most rural provinces in the country – produced a combined total of 144,015 Bachelor passes, which is equivalent to 50.9% of the total Bachelor passes, and an improvement of 4.6% from 2022.” she added.

Below is the chronological order of provinces for the matric 2023 results:

Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Picture: X/@Rise_Mzansi

For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com

Compiled by Matthew Petersen

Article written by