Class of 2023 achieves 82.9% matric pass rate

The matric class of 2023 achieved a 82.9% pass rate.

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga released the results in Johannesburg on Thursday night.

The number of bachelor passes increased, to 40.9% in 2023 — up from 38.4% in 2022.

A total of 715,719 full-time candidates enrolled to write the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams, and of those 572,983 passed. This translates to a total of 897,775 candidates who wrote the exams.

Free State continued its dominance as the top-performing province, achieving 89.3% from 88.5% last year.

In a surprise turn, KwaZulu-Natal overtook Gauteng to clinch second spot, getting 86.36% from 83.0% in 2022. The latter came in third, getting 85.38%, up from 84.4% in 2022.

KwaZulu-Natal continued its impressive streak, overtaking Western Cape to become the province with the most distinctions. The province jumped from 6% to 8.3%. Western Cape came in second while Gauteng took third place.

It was also among three of the nine provinces whose districts achieved 80% and above. The other two were Gauteng and Free State.

This was revealed in the technical briefing report by Basic Education director-general Mathanzima Mweli.

“To just give you a glimpse, out of 10 pupils, four pupils [presented] with bachelors, in terms of the 900,000 candidates who enrolled for the NSC in 2023.

“Which means it has increased from last year,” he said.

Motshekga earlier hosted the top achievers and their parents at a congratulatory breakfast on Thursday at the MTN Innovation Centre in Johannesburg. 

The Independent Examination Board (IEB) earlier announced pupils who wrote examinations through IEB achieved a 98.46% pass rate in the 2023 exams. 

The figure was a slight improvement on the 98.42% recorded in 2022. - TimesLIVE