The department of correctional services on Thursday announced that 82.6% of inmates who wrote their 2019 matric exams passed.

Speaking in Kimberley at the Tswelopele Correctional Centre on Thursday, minister of justice and correctional services Ronald Lamola announced that 161 fulltime inmates had written the examinations.

“It gives me great pleasure to announce that the grade 12 class of 2019 achieved a 82.6% pass rate.” He said 133 offender learners passed and 65 achieved bachelor passes.

This was an improvement from the 77.3% pass rate prisoners achieved the year before.

The department had 16 fulltime correctional centre schools and two public-private partnership centres.

Six of those schools recorded a 100% pass rate in the 2019 exams.