WHILE there is overall euphoria about the increase in the 2010 matric pass rate, South Africa continues to face the scourge of a high failure rate

An elated Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga told the nation yesterday of a remarkable improvement in the pass rate for the 2010 exams compared to 2009.

She called her deputy Enver Surty to the podium before triumphantly pulling the card with the national pass rate out of an envelope Fifa-style, to announce that the Class of 2010 pass rate was 67,8 percent, up from 60,7 percent in 2009.

The minister rejoiced that the improvement was a mere 2,8 percent short of the 70 percent target set for 2014.

But the statistics released by the director of exams Nkosinathi Sishi revealed that of the 643,546 candidates who sat for exams, only 364,513 passed - a 43 percent failure rate.

The number of pupils who obtained the minimum percentage for admission for university entrance increased from 109,697 in 2009 to 126,371.

A total of 364,513 out of 643,546 candidates who sat for the third National Senior Certificate examinations passed, and a total of 537,543 pupils wrote all seven subjects of whom 171,471 failed.

The pass rate revealed by the department yesterday considered only those pupils that sat wrote at least seven subjects.

At 78,6 percent from 71,8 percent in 2009 - a 6,8 percent improvement, Gauteng achieved the highest pass rate followed by Western Cape at 76,8 percent, a 1,1percent increase from 75,7 percent in 2009.

At position three is North West with an achievement of 75,7 percent, an 8,2 percent increase from the 67,5 percent pass rate in 2009. Northern Cape recorded the highest improvement of 11 percent and achieved 72,3 percent compared to 61,3 percent in 2009.

With a 70,7 percent achievement - up from 61,1 percent in 2009 - KwaZulu-Natal recorded the second-highest improvement of 9,6 percent. Free State also recorded a 70,7 percent, up from 69,4 percent compared to 2009. It recorded a mere 1,3percent improvement.

Eastern Cape achieved 58,3 percent compared to 51 percent in 2009, an improvement of 7,3 percent.

At 56,8 percent, Mpumalanga continues to be the worst performing province despite an impressive 8,9 percent increase from the 47,9 percent pass rate in 2009. Limpopo recorded the third largest improvement of 9 percent but still became the second worst performing province with a 57,9 percent pass rate, up from 48,9 percent in 2009.

Though at a very low rate, the performance in mathematics has been fairly consistent over the last three years. Performance in physical science has improved compared to 2009.

And 47,4 percent of candidates who wrote mathematics passed compared to 46 percent in 2009 and 47,8 percent passed physical science compared to 36,8 percent in 2009.

Out of 263,034 pupils who wrote mathematics, 124,749 passed. Of 205,364 candidates who wrote physical science 98,260 passed.

Motshekga said the class of 2010 "has shown us there is no mountain we cannot climb when we are up to the challenge".

She said the results would be analysed to inform the system of where further interventions were necessary.

• When the class of 2010 started school in 1999, however, there were 1,318,932 pupils were enrolled, but the number dwindled over the years.

Equal Education attributed this drop in numbers to among others, the fact that only 8 percent of schools had stocked libraries according to the Department of Education statistics in 2009. Furthermore, 50 percent of all pupils between 16 - 18 have to share textbooks and the shortage of qualified teachers as well as class size, which ranges between 50 to 60 pupils.