Matric 2019: Girls 'outperformed' boys

Madelein Dippenaar from Paarl Gimnasium high school in the Western Cape was lauded on Tuesday as the country's top matric pupil of 2019.

Her triumph cemented remarks by basic education minister Angie Motshekga, who said that girl pupils outperformed the boys in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams.

“There were 61,744 more girls than boys who enrolled for the 2019 NSC examinations, and there were 57,579 more girls than boys who actually wrote the 2019 NSC examinations," said Motshekga.

“Overall, there were 224,906 girls who passed the 2019 NSC examinations. When translated into percentages, 80.1% of girls and 82.8% of boys passed the 2019 NSC exams.”

Motshekga was upbeat, joking that she was ready to retire after the country's pass rate increased from 78.2% in 2018 to 81.3% for the class of 2019. “What more do you want?” she quipped.

There were 103,310 female candidates who obtained Bachelor passes (an increase from 2018), compared to 82,748 of their male counterparts (also an increase from 2018). 

Some 76,576 female candidates obtained Diploma passes, compared to 68,096 of their male counterparts.

There were 44,946 female candidates who got Higher Certificate passes (a decline from 2018), compared to 34,038 of their male counterparts (also a decline from 2018).

“Therefore there are 39,950 more female candidates who achieved Bachelor, Diploma and Higher Certificate passes than their male counterparts – an increase of 10.1% from 2018, meaning that there are more female candidates who are eligible for studies at higher education institutions,” said Motshekga.

She added that 63.8% of the 156,884 distinctions were attained by female candidates, “while their male counterparts attained 36.2% (of the) distinctions".

"These distinctions include passes with distinction in critical subjects such as accounting, business studies, economics, mathematics and physical science."