Matric results: Class of 2021 records pass rate of 76.4%

Matric results: The 2021 National Senior Certificate (NSC) overall pass rate stands at 76.4% – an improvement of 0.2% from the pass rate achieved by the Class of 2020, Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga has announced.

Announcing the outcomes of the 2021 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination results on Thursday, Motshekga said this represents a record of 537, 687 candidates who passed the 2021 NSC examinations – an improvement of 21.9% passes from 2020. 

Matric results 2021

Department of Education briefing

The marking process was handled by the Department of Basic Education (DBE)’s 193 marking centres and 41,000 examination markers between 8 and 22 December 2021.

ALSO READ: Here’s how to find your 2021 matric results

“The class of 2021 was the most affected class because they had to endure two years of the pandemic. We had to strike a balance between saving lives and the academic year,” said Motshekga.

Watch Motshekga’s address below:

Overall matric results of 2021

The overall pass rate of the class of 2021 is 76.4%, which is an improvement of 0.2%.

256,031 pupils got bachelors, increase from last year.

The Class of 2021 was the fourth cohort to be introduced to 12 new subject offerings, comprising the South African Sign Language (Home Language), written by 127 candidates; and Civil Technologies, Mechanical Technologies, and Electrical Technologies – each with 3 subjects; as well as Technical Mathematics and Technical Science, written by 50,330.

Aggregation according to gender

There were 77, 250 more girls than boys, who enrolled for the 2021 NSC examinations – an improvement of 7.4% from 2020, and there were 74, 247 more girls than boys, who actually wrote the 2021 NSC examinations – an improvement of 11.4% from 2020. 

Overall, there were 297,152 girls, who passed the 2021 NSC exams – an improvement of 21.4% from 2020; and 240, 535 boys who passed the 2021 NSC exams – an improvement of 22.5% from 2020.  When translated into percentages, this represents 76.4% girls, and 76.4% boys, who passed the 2021 NSC examinations – parity of the highest order.

In 2021, a total of 211,725 distinctions were achieved – an increase of 19.3% from 2020.  The main contributors towards passes with distinctions, were:

• KwaZulu-Natal with 61,887

• Gauteng with 47,399

• Western Cape with 29,542

• Eastern Cape with 24,174)

• Limpopo with 17,751

Provincial level performance

The 2021 NSC examination results show that only one province achieved lower than the 70% pass rate; five provinces performed above the 70% pass rate; and 3 provinces performed above the 80% pass rate.

The achievements by province, are as follows:

• The Free State is the leading province at 85.7%, an improvement of 0.6% from 2020;

• Gauteng achieved at 82.8%, a 1.0% decline from 2020;

• Western Cape achieved 81.2%, an improvement of 1.3% from 2020;

• North West achieved at 78.2%, an improvement of 2.0% from 2020 – the third highest improvement;

• KwaZulu-Natal achieved at 76.8%, a decline of 0.8% from 2020;

• Mpumalanga achieved at 73.6%, a 0.1% decline from 2020;

• Eastern Cape achieved at 73.0%, an improvement of 4.9% from 2020 – the second highest improvement;

• Northern Cape achieved at 71.4%, a 5.4% improvement from 2020 – the highest improvement; and

• Limpopo achieved at 66.7%, a 1.5% decline from 2020.

Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde