Durban - KwaZulu-Natal’s pass rate for the matric class of 2018 inched higher to 76.2%, an improvement of 3.3 percentage points.
However the province’s pass rate is still lower than the national pass rate of 78.2%.
This was announced by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga in Johannesburg on Thursday night.
Speaking on progressed pupils, who are pushed into the next grade despite not meeting the requirements, Motshekga said if their results were not included in the national pass rate, it would be 79.4%.
The national pass rate also increased by 3.1 percentage points and Motshekga said the results were an indication that the country’s education system had “entered the age of hope”.
President of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) Nkosiphendule Ntantala, said the increase in the national pass rate demonstrated the increasing understanding of the CAPS curriculum and stability of the National Senior Certificate exams.
The DA’s Nomsa Marchesi said while the department celebrated the pass rate, it failed to address the large number of pupils who did not make it to matric as nearly half the pupils who enrolled in Grade 1 in 2007, didn’t write the full-time matric exams in 2018.
Meanwhile, a rural Nkandla school is gaining recognition for producing top achievers despite not having running water, electricity or equipment.
Bizimali High School has gained such a good reputation that pupils from other parts of KwaZulu-Natal and from outside the province are flocking to study there.
It has become known as a school that can deal with “problem pupils”.
In 2018, it scored a matric pass rate of about 87%.
One of the school’s top achievers, Phindokuhle Mpungose, moved from Mtubatuba to Nkandla to attend the school.
“I did not do well in Grade 10 so I decided to move to Bizimali because of its reputation.”
Phindokuhle, who had to rent accommodation near the school, said he struggled financially because his mother is a street trader.
He scored eight distinctions and hopes to study medicine.
Samkelisiwe Dube, from Botha’s Hill in Durban, joined the school in Grade 11 after hearing about it from friends. Samkelisiwe, who also wants to study medicine, achieved seven distinctions.
Fellow pupil Andile Sinyuku, who also obtained seven distinctions and wants to study medicine, moved from Mamelodi near Pretoria after hearing about the school from his relatives.
Andile, whose mother is a domestic worker, said studying at the school had challenges.
“You sometimes come from school and there is no water. It was hard, but at the same time it taught me independence,” she said.
Their science teacher, Philani Dumakude, said the school had teachers who worked around the clock.
“We have about 2000 pupils, and each class has more than 100 pupils. This makes it difficult to give individual attention. We sometimes have to group the pupils according to their performance,” he said.
He added that the school achieved good results despite the daunting infrastructural challenges.
“The results do not reflect what is on the ground. The school has no running water, no proper toilets, no electricity and no fancy equipment like laboratories.”
School principal Mthunzi Ntuli said the dedication of the teachers was the driving force behind the school’s success.