Matric 2015 – pass rate drops by 5 percent
JOBURG - Last year's matric pupils waited with bated breath for the results of 2015's National Senior Certificate exams.
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Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga hosted the top achieving pupils at a ceremony in Midrand on 5 January.
Motshekga announced that 70.4 percent of nearly 800 000 pupils who sat for 2015’s matric exams passed.
The pass rate from the year before (2014) was 75.9 percent.
The matric class of 2015 was South Africa’s biggest exam group yet, of the 799 306 pupils who wrote, 667 925 were full-time, 65 671 progressed pupils and 13 1381 were part-time candidates.
It has been speculated that the reason for the disappointing pass rate in last year’s exams is the progression policy of moving Grade 11 pupils into Grade 12 if they have failed Grade 11 more than once.
Eastern Cape was named as being the lowest performing province in terms of matric results while Western Cape was the highest performing.
Yet even with the decreased pass rate there have been outstanding pupils who have shone brightly in the 2015 NSC exams.
News24, profiled matriculant Andrew Tucker who was the overall top performing pupil in the exams.
Even with missing six months of school due to a rare illness, Tucker managed to persevere and will go on to study medicine at the University of Cape Town this year.
Details: Department of Basic Education
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