The matric class of 2024 who sat for the National Senior Certificate achieved a pass rate of 87.3%, up from 82.9% the year before.
“This is the highest matric pass rate in the history of our country and should be a moment of great pride and celebration for us all,” basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube said when she released the results on Monday evening.
A total of 705,291 full-time candidates enrolled to write the NSC exams.
Gwarube said nearly half of the pupils who wrote the NSC examinations received a bachelor's pass.
A bachelor's admission pass is a prerequisite to apply for access to a degree course at a university or university of technology.
She said 47.8% of candidates qualified for admission to bachelor's degree studies, which was an improvement from last year’s 40.9% and represented the highest number of bachelor's passes in recent history.
Gwarube said 150,752 bachelor's passes were achieved in 2014.
“In just a decade this number has more than doubled in 2024 to 337,158 bachelor's passes.”
What was also encouraging was that 69.1% of pupils passed mathematics — an increase from 63.5% in 2023.
“However, in physical sciences, while 75.6% of learners passed, this is a decrease from 76.2% in 2023. While the number and percentage of learners achieving distinctions in mathematics increased in 2024 from 2023, the number and percentage of learners achieving distinctions in physical sciences has dropped.”
Gwarube said the improvement in performance in mathematics was encouraging.
“However, the decreasing participation rates in these key subjects, and the decrease in performance in physical sciences, highlight the urgent need to improve foundational literacy and numeracy to ensure that our schooling system produces learners who are confident and capable enough to choose and excel in maths and science subjects throughout their schooling career,” she said.
Gwarube said the class of 2024 achieved 319,651 distinctions, an increase of more than 65,000 distinctions from 2023. Some of these increases were seen in key subjects, including mathematics.
Every province improved on its performance from 2023 and achieved a pass rate above 84%. She said the Free State was the best performing province at 91%, increasing its pass rate from 89% in 2023.
No-fee schools improved their pass rate from 81% in 2023 to 85.8% in 2024.
“This too is another sign that our schooling system is maturing.”
She said the class of 2024 had excelled against the odds.
“These young men and women are a source of inspiration to us, proving that excellence is possible regardless of circumstances.”
However, Gwarube said there was substantial work to be done to improve the quality of education outcomes the country’s schooling system needed to achieve.
She said systemic improvements required long-term investment and planning.
“Our strategy to reorientate the basic education sector towards foundational learning will strengthen our schooling system. Research consistently shows that investments in early learning yield the highest returns in terms of education outcomes.
“By prioritising foundational literacy and numeracy in the early years, we will lay the groundwork for stronger performance in grades 4, 10 and 12, resulting in system-wide improvements.”
TimesLIVE
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