While many education experts acknowledge the improvements in the national pass rate, they caution that the figures might not fully reflect the reality of the education system.
Listen to this article 23 min Listen to this article 23 min The matric class of 2024 achieved an 87.3% pass rate, surpassing the 82.9% recorded in 2023, which Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said "should be a moment of great pride".
However, Professor Suraiya Naicker, head of the department of education leadership and management in the education faculty at the University of Johannesburg, expressed surprise and cautious optimism about the results.
Naicker pointed out the unknowns, such as the type of effort pupils put in between their preliminary and final exams, or the quality of the papers.
"My first impression was that I was surprised that we went up, but I have to give credit to the class for doing that," she said, acknowledging the pupils' hard work.
Michael le Cordeur, emeritus professor in education at Stellenbosch University, said he had anticipated a pass rate of about 85%. He believed the education system was stabilising at about 84% or 85%, and he did not foresee a decrease.
A Flourish map"The pass rate of 87% is more than I expected, quite frankly. I thought it was very high, and I would like to study the results more in depth...