Western Cape Education MEC David Maynier congratulated the matric learners after he announced that the province has excelled with a National Senior Certificate (NSC) pass rate of 86.6%, which is a 5.1 percentage point increase on last year’s results.
This is also the Western Cape’s highest NSC pass rate ever.
The province’s bachelor pass rate, which is a crucial indicator of the quality of matric passes, has also increased by 5.6 percentage points to 47.8%. This is also the highest bachelors pass rate the Western Cape Education department has achieved to date.
“Our province achieved the top Mathematics and top Physical Science pass rates again this year, with a Mathematics pass rate of 78.0%, and Physical Science pass rate of 79.4%.
“Our candidates achieved our highest number of subject distinctions to date, with 11 699 candidates achieving a total of 27 948 distinctions for the second highest distinctions rate in the country,” Maynier said.
“We have the second highest pass rate in the country for Learners with Special Education Needs (LSEN) at 91.0%, and the highest bachelors pass rate in the country for LSEN learners at 63.3%.
“We have the highest retention rate from Grade 10 to 12 in the country at 68.3%, and nearly 3 800 more Western Cape learners passed their matric exam this year compared to 2023.
“We are also delighted that our candidates have once again shone on the national stage, with four Western Cape matrics receiving awards this evening including the top candidate in the country.”
The top candidate in the province is also the top matriculant in South Africa, Rayyan Ebrahim from Pinelands High School.
Rayyan Ebrahim from Pinelands High School reacts to his incredible achievement! #Classof2024 pic.twitter.com/bHdGwErWIj
— WCEDNews (@WCEDnews) January 13, 2025
Top candidate in Quintile 5:
1st place: Rayyan Ebrahim – Pinelands High School
2nd place: Matthew Christopher Wise – Pinelands High School
3rd place: Nicholas David Schreiber – Rondebosch Boys' High School
Top candidate in South African Sign Language:
2nd place: Jordan Raubenheimer – De La Bat School
“Congratulations to our #ClassOf2024, and thank you for the hard work that you put in to ensure that you achieved your goals. You made a decision to invest in your own futures, and we can’t wait to see what you will go on to achieve after matric.
“The outstanding results would not have been possible without the support of matric teachers and matric parents. Thank you for everything that you have done to allow our candidates to shine, and for helping them to take their next steps,” Maynier said.
Candidates can collect their results from their schools and on the WCED website from 10h00 tomorrow, 14 January 2025: https://wcedonline.westerncape.gov.za/exams
Congratulations to all our candidates. We are extremely proud of you! 🥳![CDATA[]]>🎉 #ClassOf2024 pic.twitter.com/nQ2Zp4jHXI
While the province has performed the best it ever has, it still only came in 5th nationally:
- The Free State is the best performing province increasing pass rate from 89% to 91%.
- KwaZulu-Natal is the second best performing province from 89.5%
- Gauteng is third, increasing from 85.4% to 88.4% in 2024.
- North-West province is fourth obtaining 87.5% matric pass rate.
- Western Cape is fifth 86.6%, which is a 5.1 percentage point increase on last year’s pass rate
- Limpopo is sixth sitting at 85.1% matric pass rate
- Mpumalanga is seventh with a 84.9% pass rate
- Eastern Cape is eighth at 84.98%, and
- Northern Cape is 9th with 84.2% matric pass rate, but was recognised as the most improved province surging 8.3% from 2023.
While Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube was announcing the matric results, she said that in 2024, over 615 000 learners passed the NSC exams, more than any other time in our history.
The national pass rate increased from 82.9% in 2023 to 87.3% in 2024.
“This is the highest matric pass rate in the history of our country and should be a moment of great pride and celebration for us all.”
Gwarube said: “The class of 2024 reflects the resilience of the protea, the South African national flower, and a symbol of renewal and strength. The protea thrives in adversity, designed to survive wildfires, after the flames have passed, the nutrient rich ash that they leave behind nourishes the soil, trigger a release of seeds that rejuvenate Protea flowers, and they blossom even brighter than before.
“Similarly, the matric class of 2024 has faced immense challenges - that from Covid-19 that disrupted their learning to the evolving budget pressures being felt by various provincial departments, and schools to social ills such as violence, gangsterism, and this new trend of protection fee rackets terrorising our schools.
“Like the proteas, the class of 2024 seems to have drawn strength from adversity, and ready to flourish, proving that from the harshest conditions, greatness can bloom.”
Dr Makgabo Reginah Mhaule also made time to thank teachers for their efforts and sacrifice in making sure that the learners thrived.
“We want to thank our teachers, they made it a point to cover all the topics which, as I’ve said, was trimmed. They made sure that our learners attended, even on Saturday/Sundays to cover the work that was missed when they were doing grade 8 and 9.
“If we can all recall, they were not attending every day (in 2020) when they were doing Grade 8. Some were attending twice a week, (while) some were attending three days in a week,” Mhaule said.
“To those learners who may not have not made it, it is not the end of the world. There is another chance. To parents, I’m saying, ‘Don't push your children to the limit which you have never reached yourself’.”