By Anita Dangazele
The class of 2023 has produced the highest pass rate since the dawn of democracy at 82.9%.
A total of 897,775 learners sat for the 2023 matric final exams in November.
On their first day in Grade 1 there were 1.2 million learners, but thousands have dropped out over the years.
Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga released the National Senior Certificate (NSC) results in Randburg on Thursday night.
The Free State maintained its dominance with 89.3%, while KwaZulu-Natal surprised everyone by securing the second spot with 86.36%. Gauteng landed the third spot with 85.38%.
North West, Western Cape and Eastern Cape all did remarkably well, closely following each other with less than a percentage difference with 81.63%, 81.54% and 81.42% respectively.
Meanwhile, in the bottom three, Limpopo led with the highest improvement at 79.54%, followed by Mpumalanga at 76.95% and the Northern Cape at the tail end with 75.84%.
The number of bachelor passes increased, to 40.9% in 2023 — up from 38.4% in 2022.
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.
The Independent Examination Board (IEB) earlier announced that pupils who wrote examinations through the IEB achieved a 98.46% pass rate in the 2023 exams. It was a slight improvement from the 98.42% rate in 2022.
Pictured above: Class of 2023 national top achievers during the announcement of the matric results in Randburg on Thursday night.
Image source: Gauteng Department of Education / X
