The Western Cape Education MEC, Debbie Schafer says the provincial department is very pleased with the results achieved by the 2020 matrics. The province placed third in the country for its overall pass rate.
The Western Cape 2020 matrics achieved a pass rate of 79.9% which is a slight drop from the 82.3% pass rate which was achieved in 2019.
The province's Education MEC, Debbie Schafer says that the matrics of 2020 should be happy about these results given the challenging year they have had to face due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Western Cape matric pass rate dropped by the smallest percentage in the country and Schafer says that this is something to be happy about taking into consideration the circumstances.
“Obviously we never like to drop at all but given the year we had last year, I think that it's actually a pretty good achievement,” said Schafer.
The province has also moved up from fourth to third in the country, behind Gauteng and the Free State province, the latter placing first with a pass rate of 85.1%.
“The most pleasing of all is that our retention rate has actually gone up as well,” Schafer said concerning the learners who have remained in school and completed the grade.
“Throughout 2020, it has not been easy to determine the real impact of Covid-19 on the Class of 2020 with regards to the retention of learners in the system. Despite many negative predictions, I was pleased to see that the effects were not as bad as some have reported in the Western Cape,” Schäfer said.
The top mathematics and science students also hailed from the Western Cape and Schafer says that is a very good achievement that the provincial department is very proud of.
The two top Mathematics students in the country are Daniel Gouws from Hermanus High School who placed first and Veren Naidoo from Rondebosch Boys High School who came in second place.
eNCA spoke to the top mathematics student in the country Daniel who said that he hoped for a positive result but the result was beyond his expectations.
A special needs learner, Sonja Jonkers from Jan Kriel School in the province also received the Special Ministerial Award for their great academic achievements.
The province also celebrated the placements of Ayabukwa Nombela from Manzomthombo Secondary School and Sonica Roux from Outeniqua High School.
Nombela came in second place in the group of all quintile 3 schools nationally and Roux came in third place among quintile 5 schools across the country.
Schafer says that this year will be a bit easier in terms of the protocols that will need to be put in place for the current matrics of 2021, as the department has learnt from last year when everything was more unexpected.
“We really did give our matrics a lot of support last year and we'll continue to do so this year, because there will still be some gaps that they have to catch up.”- Western Cape Education MEC Debbie Schafer.
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