Johannesburg - Despite a slight improvement in the Eastern Cape's 2014 matric pass rate, it remained the worst performing province with three schools recording a zero percent pass.
Education MEC Mandla Makupula said Impey Siwisa High School in Fort Beaufort's two matric pupils failed their exams.
According to reports, Impey Siwisa received a zero percent pass rate in 2013.
All 14 matric pupils at Kwelerana Senior Secondary School and all 12 at Rabula Senior Secondary School failed their exams.
In 2012, no school in the Eastern Cape recorded a zero percent pass rate. In 2013 two schools got a zero percent pass rate.
The provincial matric pass rate for 2014 was 65.4 percent, up from 64.9 percent in 2013, an improvement of 0.5 percentage points.
Makupula said the province had shown “sluggish improvement in its performance” but there was evidence of continued positive development.
The percentage of schools in the province which received a 100 percent pass rate decreased from 4.8 in 2013 to 4.1 in 2014.
Also marring the province's performance was a report by monitoring body Umalusi, which said it suspected there had been instances of “group copying” in the exams in the Eastern Cape and in KwaZulu-Natal.
Announcing the results on Monday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said 16 matric exam centres in the Eastern Cape were being investigated for group copying by both her department and Umalusi.
Despite the ongoing probe, Makupula expressed confidence in the examinations.
“This examination has been accomplished with a high degree of credibility and integrity in the province of the Eastern Cape,” he said.
He congratulated those who had passed and expressed encouragement to those who had not done well.
“To those who could not make it in 2014, we say they must not despair. They must brush off this temporary misstep, get up, and commit to work even harder to succeed.”
Sapa