Gauteng matric emerge second in the country but leads in districts
JOHANNESBURG – More girls than boys enrolled for the 2019 exams.
Although Gauteng lost its defending title as the top performing province in the country, it claimed the first three positions in the top 10 performing districts for the 2019 matric examinations.
The province lost to the Free State after experiencing a decline of 0.7 per cent from 2018 which placed it second with 87.2 per cent. The Free State topped the list with 88.4 per cent and North West was placed third with 86.8 per cent.
This was revealed by the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga during the announcement of this year’s matric results at the Vodacom Dome in Midrand on 7 January. Motshekga, who was beaming with pride, expressed her delight at the 81.3 per cent national pass rate – an increase of 3.1 per cent from 78.2 per cent attained in 2018.
“To colleagues in the industry, I’m ready to leave. I don’t want any chances of sliding. It’s fine at 80 per cent. Go and tell the president that I couldn’t ask for more. We have an improvement of 3.1 and for that, we are grateful to our learners, our teachers and the Class of 2019,” said Motshekga.
The top three performing districts in the country were Tshwane South with 93.3 per cent, Gauteng North (90.7) and Tshwane North (90.6). Motshekga also hosted the top 30 best learners in the country on the day of the announcement of the results. Only two learners from the group were from Gauteng.
Enrique Hlatshwayo-Mentor of Nellmapius Secondary school in Tshwane and Lisa Msiza of St Vincent School for the Deaf in Rosebank were the only two learners that represented the province nationally. Lisa’s mother, Phathi said she was proud of her daughter for her excellent results but was not surprised by her performance.
“I expected her to perform well. She is a very bright child. Last year, she obtained seven gold certificates for her academic subjects. I am really proud of her and we are looking forward to a bright future,” said Phathi.
Meanwhile, 61 744 more girls than boys enrolled for the 2019 exams while 57 579 more girls than boys actually wrote the exams. However, when translated into percentages, 80.1 per cent of girls and 82.8 per cent of boys passed their matric.
“There were 103 310 female candidates –an increase of 8.6 per cent from 2018 – who obtained bachelor passes. While 82 748 of their male counterparts obtained bachelor passes – an increase of 8.6 per cent from 2018,” said Motshekga.
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