Eighty percent of the pupils at a Wynberg school for refugees have passed their matric exams.
Perky Umera, principal at Bright Student Learning Centre, which has schools in Wynberg, Masiphumelele and Bellville, said she was proud of the school’s Independent Examinations Board (IEB) results.
The pupils had done well despite the challenges they faced as refugees, she said. Twelve of the 15 pupils at the Wynberg school had passed and 38 of the 45 pupils across the learning centre’s three schools.
The IEB results (with a national 98.82% pass) were published on Tuesday and followed on Wednesday by the 2019 National Senior Certificate (NSC) matric results.
The class of 2019 had an average pass rate of 81.3%, an increase of 3.1% from the previous year.
Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga said it was the highest pass since democracy.
Of the 787 717 candidates who wrote the matric exams, 36.9% qualified for university entrance, with Bachelor’s passes.
The Free State led this year’s results, coming top with an 88.4% pass rate. Gauteng followed with 87.2%. North West came third with 86.8%, and the Western Cape was fourth with 82.3%, an increase of 0.8% from the previous year.
But the Western Cape, according to Ms Motshekga, had the most distinctions and 43.6% of matric candidates achieved a Bachelor’s pass, compared to 42.3% the year before.
The Western Cape also had the top-three matrics in the country and the top two in maths, according to Education MEC Debbie Schäfer.
The IEB pass rate dropped marginally from 98.92% the previous year, according to the board’s CEO, Anne Oberholzer.
A total of 11 818 full-time pupils and 779 part-time pupils wrote the IEB exams.
Ms Oberholzer said 89.51% of the students qualified for entry to study a degree, 7.91% to study a diploma and 1.4% for a higher certificate.
The closing date to apply for re-marking is Monday January 13. Results from re-marking will be released on Thursday February 6.
The Bulletin went to print before Education MEC Debbie Schäfer was due to release the province’s
matric results on Wednesday afternoon.
