Durban - KwaZulu-Natal achieved a pass rate of 72.8 percent, which is a 6.4 percent improvement from 2016, and the largest improvement in the country. That's according to Angie Motshekga, Minister of Basic Education, who spoke at the release of NSC Examination results in Auckland Park on Thursday.
In 2017, 66 of the 70 districts countrywide (94 percent of our districts) attained pass rates of over 60 percent. Meanwhile, 31 of the districts (44.3 percent) attained pass rates of 80 percent and above. Four of the 70 districts (5.7 percent) attained pass rates lower than 60 percent, and for the first time, no district performed lower than 50 percent.
KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have the most number of Bachelor passes ( 80.2 percent). It is an increase of 3.5 percent from 2016. Together, both provinces make up just over 70 of Diploma passes, an increase of 4.1 percent from 2016.
KwaZulu-Natal matric pupils bagged the most number of distinctions, 28 percent, out of 161 081 distinctions. In second place was Gauteng with 22.4 percent, and thereafter; Western Cape with 15.5 percent, Limpopo with 9.5 percent and Eastern Cape with 9 percent.
Although none of the districts in KwaZulu-Natal made it into the top 10 performing districts in the country, which includes the progressed pupils, Umgungundlovu, which is in the north west of KwaZulu-Natal, was the top performing district in the province, with 81.5 percent, including progressed pupils.
However, KwaZulu-Natal sits third on the list, on 73.6 percent in ascending order, with the exclusion of progressed pupils.
Motshekga said that in the KwaZulu-Natal, the results which include progressed pupils were better than the results that exclude the progressed pupils.
“We have noted the upward trend in the performance of our three most rural provinces, namely, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. 51.5 percent of the candidates, who wrote the 2017 NSC examinations, come from these three rural provinces. Remarkably 68.7 percent of the candidates, who wrote the 2017 NSC examinations passed. More remarkably, these three provinces combined, produced 44.8 percent Bachelor passes, which translates to almost 45 Bachelor passes per 100 produced anywhere else in the country,” said Motshekga.
Daily News