2023 matrics in the class of their own

The Class of 2023 has made history not only by achieving the highest number of distinctions and bachelor passes, but also increased the matric pass rate to 82.9%.

This is a 2.8% improvement compared to the 80.1% recorded last year.

KwaZulu-Natal produced the highest number of distinctions in the country, overtaking the Western Cape.

Of the 157,911 candidates who wrote the exams in KZN, 96,986 obtained distinctions, with 43,769 getting bachelor passes.

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga on Thursday night said the number of candidates qualifying for admission to bachelor studies at universities was 282,894, which represents 40.9% of the total number of candidates who wrote the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams.

"It is remarkable to note that the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo – the three most rural provinces in the country – produced 50.9% of the total bachelor passes.  In addition, these three most rural provinces produced 59.0% of the total passes with distinction," said Motshekga.

"The bachelor passes in number and percentage are the highest attained in the entire history of the NSC exams. KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng contributed the most bachelor passes.

"The number of candidates who passed with a diploma is 187,876, which represents 27.2% of the total number of candidates who wrote the 2023 NSC exams."

Basic education director-general Mathanzima Mweli, who presented the technical report earlier in the day, said KZN received the highest number of distinctions in technical maths.

Mweli said the Class of 2023 also had the highest bachelors passes of all years, with four out of every 10 of the 900,000 pupils who wrote receiving one distinction.

The report showed that in 2012, when the Class of 2023 started grade 1, there were 1.2-million pupils, and this number had reduced significantly to 740,566 when the group sat for matric.

Despite this, Mweli said the Class of 2023 had the lowest absentee rate of all time at a rate of 3.4%. It also showed that female pupils were performing better than their male peers.

Mweli said in 2005 poor schools accounted for 20% of the results and contributed 60%-80% of bachelors. He said that had now changed, with schools in rural areas now contributing to the performance.

"This means you have bachelors in your rural areas... Of the 5,458 learners with special needs enrolled, 5,288 sat for their exams, with 2,491 getting bachelors.”

Motshega said the NSC pass rate has consistently been going up – from 60% in 2009 to above 80% in recent years.

"This cohort was exposed to Covid-19, while they were in grades 9 and 10 in 2020 and 2021, thus placing them at the eye of the Covid-19 storm. Their ability to cope during those extremely difficult academic and psycho-emotional draining years is the manifestation of their fortitude and burning desire to improve their future prospects," said Motshekga.

She said none of the provinces achieved pass rates below 75%.

Free State has retained the number one position after obtaining an 89% pass rate.

"...the fact that none of our provinces are performing at pass rates lower than 75%; the fact that none of our districts are performing under 60%; the fact that our no-fee schools have contributed more than 65% of our bachelor passes – therefore, there is no room for error in the delivery of government’s pro-poor policies, programmes and interventions.

"The high quality passes we have achieved this year, especially the record number of bachelor and diploma passes…are an indisputable testimony that ours is indeed a system on the rise," Motshekga said.

Education expert Prof Mary Metcalfe said there is a significant improvement in the overall pass rate in the percentage of candidates achieving a bachelor pass and in the percentage passing maths.

"Provinces that have seen significant improvements are KZN, Limpopo and Eastern Cape in both overall NSC pass and in bachelor pass ... all largely rural, [and] stable provinces are Free State, Western Cape  and Mpumalanga."

She said the narrower range between provinces was a gap of 20% points which is now sitting at 14.

"The overall improvement puts the country back to pre-Covid level and beats the 2019 percentage pass of 81.3, which is now 82.9."  –  Additional reporting by Jeanette Chabalala