Cape Town - More than 13 000 candidates from the class of 2021 received their National Senior Certificate results under the Independent Examination Board (IEB) on Wednesday, with a 98.39% pass rate, which is slightly higher than 98.06% achieved in the previous year.
IEB chief executive Anne Oberholzer said as with an iceberg, the achievement they saw in the class of 2021 hides the depth of the struggle and effort that underpins the success.
"These Grade 12 learners were the true victims of Covid-19. The class of 2021 has had to dig deep mentally and emotionally to find the strength to face the tremendous challenges of a radically changed teaching and learning environment of the last two years," said Oberholzer.
She said the journey for the Grade 12 candidates of 2021 was somewhat different with school closures from as early as March 2020 and then sporadically throughout the year, continuing right through their Grade 12 year.
Oberholzer said they experienced disruptive change of an unprecedented nature within a relatively short space of time.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer congratulated the successful candidates.
In a stellar performance from Curro Holdings, its matric learners have come up trumps once again, recording an exceptional 99% pass rate for the 2021 academic year.
The achievement was based on the performance of 1 774 learners across the group of 31 Curro campuses nationwide who wrote the IEB exams in 2021.
Among them were two learners who were on the IEB’s Outstanding Achievers list, Michaela Noelle van der Waag from Curro Langebaan and Megan van der Walt from Woodhill College.
Van der Waag said she was planning to study actuarial science at Stellenbosch University, because maths was her favourite, and she was always up for challenge.
Curro Holdings chief executive Andries Greyling said the majority of Curro’s learners (70%) achieved a minimum of a C-average and 191 learners achieved an A average (an improvement from 2020), which demonstrated the learners’ prowess when it comes to their studies, and commitment to success.
“We are extremely proud of our Class of 2021 matriculants. They have shown what can be achieved through hard work and dedication, and we wish each one of them well as they start their career journey by means of further tertiary studies or work opportunities,” said Greyling.
sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za