The country's 2022 matric class received a pass rate of 80.1 percent, the second cohort since the inception of democracy to breach the 80% pass rate.
The official results for all nine provinces were announced by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Thursday evening.
While the overall pass rate improved with 3.7%, the Free State came out as the best-performing province with a pass rate of 88.5 percent, up from 2.8 percent in 2021.
The worst-performing province, Limpopo, achieved a 72.1 percent pass rate.
Video: Kamogelo Moichela
“The Class of 2022 has clearly demonstrated that with all requisite support and intervention programmes, we can make it,” said Motshekga, adding that “we must prioritise our interventions on teaching and learning losses”.
In celebrating the great achievements of the class of 2022, Motshekga said it’s imperative to thank the principals, teachers, support staff, and parents.
“Schools are at the coalface of basic education delivery ... what you do at the school level, is what matters the most ... the future of our learners, and the prosperity of our nation, is in your hands ... we applaud you for the great work you continue to do on a daily basis,” she said.
Exam watchdog Umalusi on Monday announced it has approved the release of the 2022 matric results, but was concerned over cheating allegations that emerged from some of the exam centres.
“Umalusi remains seriously concerned with reported cases of irregularities during the writing of the examinations. Different forms of cheating were uncovered in some centres during the examinations,” said Umalusi chief executive, Mafu Rakometsi.
“Based on the magnitude of the offences, different sanctions have been meted against the candidates involved such as the nullification of the results, barring the candidates from writing the examination for either 1 or 2 examination cycles,” said Rakometsi.
In the meantime it was announced that the unsolvable question on the Grade 12 maths paper 2 exam was omitted from the marking process.
Department of Basic Education (DBE) spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the question paper was therefore marked out of 143. The mark was then upscaled to 150.
The Independent Examinations Board (IEB), which administered private school exams, released its national results on Wednesday.
It achieved a matric pass rate of 98.42%, slightly up from the 98.39% achieved by the class of 2021.
According to the CEO of IEB, Anne Oberholzer the learners showed “resilience,” with a number of schools seeing strong performances, with many reporting multiple distinctions.
IOL