Western Cape on the up as department praises matric class of 2021

From 11am on Friday morning, Western Cape matric 2021 pupils began to receive their much-anticipated National Senior Certificate (NSC) results.

After a difficult two years, Western Cape Minister of Education Debbie Schäfer lauded the province’s pass rate of 81.2%, a 1.3% improvement from 2020. 

Overall, the country achieved an NSC pass rate of 76.4%, with 537,687 passing candidates – a significant improvement of 21.9% when compared to last year. 

Find your 2021 matric results here.

Two Western Cape districts – Metro North Education District and Eden and Central Karoo Education District – ranked in the country’s top 10, with 85.87% and 84.33% pass rates respectively. 

Quintile three schools, known as no-fee schools, achieved a pass rate 75.8%, and a bachelor pass rate of 32.5%. 

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Quintile four schools achieved a slightly lower 74.7% pass rate, with a 30.2% bachelor pass rate. 

“The reduction in the inequality gap between our quintile four and five school and our quintile one to three schools is significant,” Schäfer said. 

She said that since 2008 when NSC exams were first written, “poorer schools have made great strides”. 

“It is our vision to provide quality education to every leaner, in every classroom, in every school in the province – these stats evidently show that, with continued determination and commitment, we are on track to achieve it!

“Congratulations to our quintile one to three schools for this remarkable achievement.”