BuaNews (Tshwane)
Nthambeleni Gabara
30 December 2008
Johannesburg — Matriculants in Gauteng have earned more university endorsements under the National Curriculum Statement.
A total of 92751 learners in Gauteng wrote the National Senior Certificate and 91959 pupils wrote with subject combinations that would lead to university entrance. This is an improvement from 20 percent to 30 percent.
The total number of passes for the 2008 matric exams in Gauteng is 63976, while a total of 21814 did not meet the minimum requirements to pass.
Announcing the results on Tuesday at ParkTown Girls' High School in Johannesburg, Gauteng MEC for Education, Angie Motshekga said the first exams to be written on the new curriculum had been successful for the province.
"I am proud to state that Gauteng has done extremely well. This academic year we've achieved a 76.4 percent pass rate," she said.
A total of 28235 learners achieved results that will enable them to access higher education to complete a bachelor's degree, an increase of approximately 10.03 percent over the endorsement rates of 20.41 percent achieved in 2007.
"This reveals that as a province, we've improved results qualitatively," she said.
Ms Motshekga also announced that out of the 139 poorly performing schools that achieved a pass rate below 60 percent in the province in the past academic year, only 103 showed an improvement in the pass rates.
"It is encouraging to note that 33 schools showed improvement of greater than 25 percent. The 36 schools that did not show any improvement or declined further will be thoroughly investigated by the district directors," she said.
MEC Motshekga also announced that an intensive intervention and support program will be put in place in the new academic year to assist poorly performing schools.
Seven of the provinces districts achieved a pass rate below the provincial average of 76.23 percent.
The poorest performing district was Sedibeng West with a 61 percent pass rate, while the best performing district is Tshwane South.
"It is encouraging to note that the intervention program in most districts achieved better learner performance. In comparison to the district performance in 2007 district, Johannesburg East and Sedibeng East showed the greatest decline of just over 5 percent," she said.
The MEC said that although Sedibeng West performed poorly they improved their performance by 2.92 percent.
Districts Tshwane West and Ekurhuleni South made best progress of 9.03 percent improvement against the 2007 academic results.
She also announced that a total of 57 public schools (in quintile 5) achieved 100 percent pass rate.
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