Kudos to Class of 2024 and teachers

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube found it impossible to keep the ecstatic smile off her face as she made the official announcement of the 2024 National Senior Certificate results yesterday.

She had good reason for celebration: the 2024 matrics were the best the country has yet produced, she revealed, with a national pass rate which went up 4.4 percentage points to 87.3%… a stunning achievement.

Gwarube said there were significant gains in the overall number of distinctions achieved, as well as in the number of pupils who met the bachelor’s degree entrance standard – a figure which has doubled since 2015.

More than two-thirds of these passes were achieved by pupils in the Quintile 1 to 3 schools, which are generally in poorer areas.

Gwarube noted that performance in mathematics showed a definite improvement, although science results showed a slight dip.

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Most encouraging was the fact that almost 80% of the high schools in the country had achieved pass rates of between 80% and 100%.

Gwarube played down the reality that just over half the children who started Grade 1 in 2013 had enrolled as matric candidates in 2024, saying many had not been lost to education completely and would have entered vocational training.

That situation is still worrying because, despite what the minister says, the overall drop-out rate is alarmingly high.

It is also fair to record that the excellent matric results from 2024 were not as a result of the efforts of Gwarube, who only took office as part of the government of national unity in the middle of the year.

The kudos should go to the often-maligned national and provincial departments of education. They certainly seem to be making a difference.

ALSO READ: Matric results: Class of 2024 achieves 87.3% pass rate

Also, these matric candidates would not have achieved what they did without their own commitment… and the hard work of their teachers.