Class of 2024 shines with unmatched results

With the highest matric pass rate in the history of the South African National Senior Certificate examinations, the minister of basic education has lauded the class of 2024 for making history with excellent results.

The department of basic education has announced the final NSC results for the 2024 matric year with a 87.3% pass rate.

This surpasses the 82.9% recorded in 2023 by 4.4%.

Class of 2024 surpass record

The NSC pass rate has gone up from 60% in 2009, to over 80% to date.

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said the class of 2024 had set a new record.

“A total of 615 429 pupils passed the National Senior Certificate – more than at any other time in our history. This is the highest matric pass rate in the history of our country and should be a moment of great pride and celebration for all of us,” she said.

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“The class of 2024 has excelled against the odds. These young men and women are a source of inspiration to us, proving that excellence is possible regardless of circumstance.”

Gwarube announced the results at Mosaïek Church in Fairland, Johannesburg, yesterday evening, accompanied by the deputy minister, director-general and education MECs from all the nine provinces.

Every province in the country achieved above the 80% pass rate.

Every province achieved over 80%

The Free State province retained its spot as the best performing province at 91%, increasing its pass rate from 89% in 2023, followed closely by KwaZulu-Natal at number two with a pass rate of 89.5%, an increase of 3.2% from 2023. Gauteng, in third place, increased its pass rate from 85.4% in 2023 to 88.4% in 2024.

The North West achieved 87.5%, while the Western Cape achieved 86.6% of the top five provinces.

Gwarube said the results showed that the schooling system was maturing, but that there is still much work to be done to improve the quality of education outcomes.

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According to the minister, 47.8% of candidates qualified for admission to bachelor studies, which is a significant improvement from last year’s 40.9% and represents the highest number of bachelor passes in recent history. This is a 6.9% increase from last year. In 2022, 38.4% of pupils received bachelor’s passes.

KwaZulu-Natal achieved the highest number of bachelor passes at 84 470, followed by Gauteng with 66 979 and the Eastern Cape with 45 662.

“This is a critical benchmark of readiness for higher education and training.

Critical benchmark

“In 2014, we produced 150 752 bachelor passes. In just a decade this number has more than doubled in 2024 to 337 158.

“It is also encouraging to see that some provinces with the highest numbers of pupils are achieving high numbers of bachelor passes,” she said.

According to the department of basic education technical report, for the 2024 class the number of bachelor passes from quintile 1-3 schools (public schools in low-income areas not allowed to charge school fees) amounted to 214 500, an increase of 67.1% from the previous academic year.

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Quintile 4-5 (those that receive a small amount of funding from the government) accounted for 105 096, amounting to 32.9%, a decrease compared to 34.7% in 2023.

“Pupils from quintiles 1-3 schools, which typically serve our poorest communities, have made significant gains, reflecting the success of initiatives such as the national school nutrition programme and extra tuition support during school holidays.

“However, the performance gap between quintiles remains a concern,” she said.

Gap between quintiles a concern

The minister added that the number of high schools achieving a pass rate of between 80%-100% in 2023 was 4 493 and in 2024, this increased to 5 387, representing 77.7% of high schools.

“The number of underperforming schools has decreased.”

She said this was due to intensified interventions undertaken by the national department, together with provincial departments and their district teams, to support schools in distress.

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In 2013, in Grade 1 nearly 1 222 851 entered the system, but only 740 876 sat for the exams.

Gwarube pointed out that this does not mean those who did not enrol for Grade 12 dropped out of the education system.

“This has been a misconception that these pupils are lost to the system, which is often not the case.

Pupils not lost to the system

“Firstly, pupils have a choice to switch to technical and vocational education training colleges.

“Secondly, pupils at different times progress to different grades and some become part-time candidates and some change subjects.

“Furthermore, pupils migrate from public schools to private schools. So these pupils are still part of the system, just not part of the class of 2024, as full-time candidates.”

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