The National Senior Certificate (NSC) pass rate dropped to 76.2% in 2020, down about five percentage points from the previous year.
“As much as we had a drop I am grateful to all South Africans, teachers and learners. I was expecting a bloodbath,” basic education minister Angie Motshekga said on Monday, referring to the Covid-19 crisis which continues to interrupt learning.
“Had it not been for the virus, this class would have given us the best performance [to date] in the system,” she said.
The Free State had the highest pass rate at 85.1%, closely followed by Gauteng with about 83%. The Western Cape scored close to 80%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 77.6%. The North West recorded 76.2%, followed by Mpumalanga (73.7%), Limpopo (68.2%), Eastern Cape (68.1%) and Northern Cape (66%).
Motshekga said despite the drop in the overall pass rate, the number of “quality” passes had improved with more candidates qualifying for degree studies.
The 2020 class had a total of 725,034 registered candidates comprising just more than 600,000 full-time and close to 120,000 part-time.
Close to 211,000 candidates qualified for admission to bachelor’s degree studies, a 13.3% increase from 2019. This represents slightly more than a third of the total number of candidates, who wrote last year's matric exams.
A total of 150,600 candidates qualified to enrol for a diploma, an increase of 4.1% from 2019 or just over a quarter of the total number of candidates who wrote the exams.
A bachelor’s pass requires a minimum of 30% in the language of learning and teaching at the educational institution, as well as 40% in the pupil’s home language, and 50% in four or more subjects. An ordinary pass requires a minimum of 30% for four subjects and 40% for three subjects, including home language instruction.
According to the basic education department learners qualifying for entry into a bachelor’s programme at a university have increased from about 100,000 in 1994, to about 160,000 in recent years.
A number of observers and critics have previously said the matric pass rate was artificially inflated through low standards and pupils were not equipped for higher education‚ training or work.
Prof Nadine Petersen, the vice-dean for teaching and learning at the University of Johannesburg, said it was unfair to expect the educators alone to prepare learners for tertiary education and work. She said even some private school learners struggled to cope with the demands of university.
“Universities also have a key role to play to ensure that first years are assisted with transitioning to higher education,” she said.
She added that while the pandemic led to a drop in the pass rate, the quality of the passes improved possibly because of the lockdown and fewer activities meant more learners had extra time to focus on their studies.
Last week, the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) announced its results showing that the matric class of 2020 scored a pass rate of 98.07%, slightly lower than the 98.82% recorded in the previous year.
The IEB offers examinations for mostly private schools, and is separate from the government’s NSC.
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