Although the 2020 matric pass rate has decreased to 76.2%, it wasn’t the “blood bath” she expected, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Monday as she released the long-awaited matric results.
“The overall pass rate including the progressed learners is at 76.2%, a drop of 5.1% (from the previous year).
“I am grateful to all of South Africa. I was expecting a blood bath. I am grateful to all teachers. We tried all in our powers to claw back time, but we can’t,” she said.
She said they obtained the 76.2% pass rate despite the adversity faced by the pupils, compared with 81.3% in 2019 and 78.2% in 2018.
The Free State was the top performing province with a pass rate of 85%, followed by Gauteng (83%) and the Western Cape (80%)
From the 2020 cohort, 2 161 pupils with special needs sat for the exam and 2 058 of those passed with admission to a Bachelors Certificate.
While 86.3%, or 71, of the 133 inmates who wrote exams passed.
Earlier, the DBE’s director-general Mathanzima Mweli gave a technical report saying this was the first time that one million matric candidates wrote the final exam and of the million, 607 226 were full-time pupils and 117 808 part-time candidates.
He said despite the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic, the class of 2020 outperformed their predecessors in most subjects and distinction passes.
Dr. Rufus Poliah, Chief Director for National Assessment and Public Examinations said South Africa was one of only 22 countries in the world that maintained exams during the pandemic.
Today at 11.30am, Western Cape Education Minister Debbie Schäfer will visit Elswood Sekondêr for the release of the provincial matric results.
Learners will receive their results at their schools from midday onward.