Gauteng's oldest matric pupil was 36 and the youngest just 15
The oldest person to write the 2019 matric exams in Gauteng was 36 years old.
Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi shared a few snapshots on Twitter of how the province fared ahead of the big announcement of the 2019 matric results by basic education minister Angie Motshekga on Tuesday evening.
A total of 790,405 candidates sat for the final examinations at 7,416 centres throughout the country. A further 212 wrote at correctional facilities (jails).
More than 111,000 full-time candidates wrote their final exams in Gauteng, along with just over 42,000 part-time students.
Our oldest matriculant in Gauteng is 36 years old. Check below our age analysis of our matriculants #MatricFigures @Steve_Mabona @EducationGP pic.twitter.com/7YvXltwYc7
— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) January 7, 2020
Lesufi revealed that that the youngest matric pupils were aged 15 - and there were 103 of them in the province.
He said there had been fewer pupils who dropped out of school this time. “For the first time, 77% of learners in Gauteng who started schooling in 2008 reached matric,” said Lesufi.
Last year 63% of those who started school in 2007 sat for their final exams.
Lesufi expressed concern at the small number of pupils who enrolled for accounting as a subject. “In Gauteng, accounting as a subject may come to an end,” he warned.
“In 2008 we had 35,139 learners taking accounting, but in 2019 this number dropped badly to 14,768 learners, so almost half of our learners are no longer willing to do accounting. We have a serious problem here.”
Motshekga on Tuesday morning held a breakfast in Midrand to honour the 33 top national achievers.
Two of them were from Gauteng: Enrique Hlatshwayo-Mentor from Nellmapius Secondary School in Pretoria and Lisa Msiza from St Vincent School for the Deaf in Melrose, Johannesburg. They will receive their results at another event later in the day.