Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says the number of Bachelor passes attained in 2022 is the highest in the history of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, but the percentage is second only to that attained in 2021.
A total number of 278 814 candidates achieved bachelor’s passes. All provinces registered improvements in their pass rates.
Both KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces contributed 127 968 Bachelor passes, an 8.7% increase from 2021, and 45.9% of total Bachelor passes nationally.
“We must state that KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng contributed the most Bachelor passes, with 69 849 – an increase of 12.9% from 2021; and 58 119 – an increase of 4.1% from 2021, respectively. When combined, KZN and Gauteng contributed 127 968 Bachelor passes – an improvement of 8.7% from 2021, and 45.9% of the overall Bachelor passes nationally,” says Motshekga.
The number of candidates, who passed with a Diploma has improved to 8.9% from 2021; which represents 26.7% of the total number of candidates, who wrote the 2022 NSC examinations.
The number of candidates, who passed with Higher Certificates is 108 159 – an improvement of 4.1% from 2021; and represents 14.9% of the total number of candidates, who wrote the 2022 NSC combined examinations.
The Class of 2022 achieves a matric pass rate of 80.1% – which is a 3.7% increase over 2021. The Free State was again the best-performing province with a pass rate of 88.5% pass rate.
GRAPHIC | Slideshow of provinces’ performance
Motshekga says there is no doubt that the Basic Education system has begun to reach the desired stability.
“The unquestionable resilience our school community has shown, against such a devastating pandemic; and other challenges, such as the persistent load-shedding, and sporadic service delivery protests, cannot go unnoticed,” she says.
Improvement
Motshekga was full of praise for KZN. The Class of 2022 in KwaZulu-Natal has shown the biggest improvement in the matric pass rate with a 6.2% jump over 2021 to a pass rate of 83%. This is despite major challenges in the province including the floods that ravaged KZN last year.
Individual results will be available on the department’s website from midnight tonight. The class of 2022 had numerous challenges to face including the effects of the Covid lockdowns on earlier years of schooling, load shedding and the tough economic environment.
