WATCH: Western Cape cuts under-performing schools from 27 to 19

The number of "under-performing" schools in the Western Cape - those with matric pass rates below 60% - dropped from 27 to 19 in 2016‚ education MEC Debbie Schäfer announced on Thursday.

She was speaking during the release of matric results at New Eisleben Secondary School in Crossroads‚ which increased its pass rate from 47.1% in 2015 to 68.1% in 2016. The school has been plagued by conflict between staff members‚ and in 2013 pupils trashed the premises and stoned cars because the principal was "rude" and administered corporal punishment.

Yesterday’s occasion proved too much for Sinovuyo Xego‚ who found out that she was the second person in her family to pass matric. Her mother passed two years ago. "Those tears you saw were tears of joy‚" she said. "The other reason I was so emotional is because I’m my mom’s last hope‚ I’m the only daughter she has. I look up to her and she believes in me so I believe I made her proud today."

WATCH: pupils celebrating at New Eisleben Secondary School, in Cape Town after receiving their matric results.

 Xego is waiting for acceptance at Cape Peninsula University of Technology or the University of the Western Cape‚ and she hopes to become a teacher. "Our community is full of gangsters... and I would like to change that because I believe that I am an African.

I believe that by helping an African child I can help the country as well‚" she said. The school’s second best-performing matric student‚ Zihle Ncameva‚ from Qumbu in the Eastern Cape‚ has lived with his uncle and aunt after his parents sent him to the Western Cape for high school.

"I had to encourage myself even though there were challenges like gangsterism and noise while I'm trying to read at night. But I had to work hard‚ have early mornings and late nights‚" he said. "I'm very proud to say I made it mom!" he said‚ making both his hands into fists and throwing them into the air.

He has been accepted into a medical laboratory sciences course at CPUT. Principal Lindile Kamana said the results were achieved by a combination of improving teacher accountability and setting targets‚ and working with the police to curb the threat of gangsterism to the school and pupils. - TMG Digital/The Times