Matric pass rate shoots past 75%
THE matric class of 2013 achieved a 78.2% pass rate, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced on Monday - up from the 73.9% who passed their state-set National Senior Certificate examinations in 2012.
Matriculants also achieved more than 67,000 distinctions in their school-leaving exam.
"The standard of our question papers has improved significantly and is comparable to most international bodies," the minister said.
In 2009, when Ms Motshekga took over as minister, the pass rate was 60.6%. It has climbed steadily since then.
The Free State was the province with the highest pass rate, at 87.4%, taking the spot occupied by Gauteng in 2012.
It was followed by North West at 87.2%, compared with the previous year's 79.5%, Gauteng at 87% (83.9%), the Western Cape at 85.1% (82.8%), Mpumalanga at 77.6% (70%), KwaZulu-Natal at 77.4% (73.1%), the Northern Cape at 74.5% (slightly down from 74.6%), Limpopo at 71.8% (66.9%) and the Eastern Cape at 64.9% (61.6%).
Matrics will be able to obtain their individual results from 6am Tuesday morning.
Bachelor's degree passSchools in the Western Cape, named in a report by the Department of Basic Education last year as the best run in the country, delivered South Africa's highest percentage of pupils achieving a bachelor's degree pass.
Overall, a total of 30.6% of matrics obtained bachelor's passes.
In a technical briefing on the exam results ahead of Ms Motshekga's address on Monday, the department's acting director-general, Paddy Padayachee, also said pass rates in virtually all 12 key subjects had improved nationally.
A total of 562,112 full-time candidates wrote the end-of-year exam in 2013 - the highest number in the six years of existence of the National Senior Certificate - along with 92,611 part-time candidates.
In Gauteng, 38.9% of pupils achieved a bachelor's degree pass, up from 36.2% the previous year. The worst-performing province at this level was the Eastern Cape with 19%, said Mr Padayachee.
The number of full-time candidates writing mathematics had increased to 241,509 last year, up from 225,587 in 2012, he said.
A total of 184,383 full-time pupils wrote physical science, compared with 179,194 in 2012 - a smaller than expected increase, according to Mr Padayachee, largely due to changes that forced pupils who took the subject to also do mathematics.
Ms Motshekga said the pass rate in mathematics had increased from 54% in 2012 to 59.1%.
The Eastern Cape was also revealed to be home to South Africa's worst school districts, with all seven districts with an aggregated pass rate of less than 60% located in that province.
Nine schools around the country received a 0% pass rate and would receive attention from provincial education departments, Mr Padayachee said.
On the other hand, 551 schools registered a 100% pass rate last year, up from 441 in 2012.
Pupils writing matric through the Independent Examinations Board achieved exceptional results for 2013, securing a 98.56% pass rate.
The release of the IEB results last Tuesday indicated that the 10,166 pupils at 185 schools writing the exams exceeded the previous year's pass rate of 98.2% and bested the 2010 pass rate of 98.53%. The pass rate for 2011 was 98.15%.
Further training encouragedMatriculants hoping to increase their job prospects should look to train further after school, trade union Solidarity said on Monday.
A report by the Solidarity Research Institute showed the local labour market was still difficult for young people, even if they had a matric certificate, it said in a statement. Nearly one in three young South Africans are unemployed and not in training.
Senior economic researcher Paul Joubert, who compiled the report, said matriculants should not expect to find a well-paying job straight out of school.
"Of course, this is not meant to discourage young people from job hunting for whatever jobs are available, as any work experience increases a person's chances of finding a better job in future," he said. "However, the best option remains to further one's education."
The report showed that about 50% of job seekers with a matric certificate as their only qualification were employed. While this was better than for those without any training or qualification, of whom only were 30% employed, 80% of people with some form of tertiary qualification were employed.
"Therefore, a matric certificate does improve a person's chances of having a job, but a tertiary qualification improves a person's chances of having a job significantly," said Mr Joubert.
Tertiary education also increased a person's earning potential. In 2011, according to the report, out of employed people with only a matric certificate, 30% earned more than R6,400 a month and more than 13% earned more than R12,800 a month.
Among the employed who had a matric certificate and a further tertiary qualification, 50% earned more than R6,400 a month. More than 30% earned more than R12,800 a month, and 9.1% earned more than R25,600 a month.
"The next group, people with university degrees, higher diplomas or equivalent qualifications, shows the biggest jump in income levels," Solidarity said.
"Almost 80% of this group earned more than R6,400 per month in 2011. More than half received an income of more than R12,800 per month, and nearly a quarter earned more than R25,600 per month." A total of 7% earned more than R51,200 per month.
http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/education/2014/01/06/matric-pass-rate-shoots-past-75