South Africa’s Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced the results of this year’s high school examinations, with the Class of 2021 obtaining an overall pass rate of 76.4 percent – an increase of 0.2 percentage points from 2020.
Making the announcement on Thursday evening, Motshekga applauded the Class of 2021 with its over 800,000 students for working hard despite Covid-19 challenges.
According to the minister, the year was a very difficult period for the learners due to the Covid-19 pandemic but “the learners over-performed against the odds.”
“The 2021 matriculants are a class of their own. We need to understand and appreciate the magnitude of having a top learner in 2021. It’s a class that got the best of Covid-19,” the minister said.
Free State province led with 85.7 percent, an improvement of 0.6 percentage points from 2020, followed by Gauteng (82.8 percent), Western Cape (81.2 percent), North West (78.2 percent), KwaZulu-Natal (76.8 percent), Mpumalanga (73.6 percent), Eastern Cape (73 percent), Northern Cape (71.4 percent), and Limpopo (66.7 percent), the minister said.
The number of candidates qualifying for admission to bachelor studies at universities is 256,031 – an improvement of 21.4 percent from 2020, she said.
NM/jn/APA