Matric Results 2017: Despite 2.5% improvement, Eastern Cape remains at bottom of the class

The Eastern Cape again came out bottom of the class in the 2017 National Senior Certificate Examinations or Matric results announced by Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, on Thursday evening.

Despite a 2.5% improvement from the 2016 Matric results, the Eastern Cape achieved a 65.8% pass rate. 

The Eastern Cape trailed behind Limpopo, which had a pass rate of 67.4% after declining 0.8% from the results of 2016. With progressed learners, the Eastern Cape achieved a 65% pass rate - or a 5.7% improvement from 2016, the second largest improvement in the country.

KwaZulu-Natal attained a 73.6% pass rate; Mpumalanga came in at 76.6%; Northern Cape at 77.6%; and the North West was at 82.1%.

The Western Cape came in third at 84.4% behind Gauteng at 86%. The best performing province was the Free State at 89.8% despite a 3.4% decline from the Matric results of 2016. 

According to Minister Motshekga, who released the national pass rate as well as figures for the provinces in a live broadcast at 6pm from the SABC studios in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, the Class of 2017 recorded the third highest enrolment of Grade 12 learners in the history.

She said that, for the past seven years, they have noted that the NSC pass rate has consistently been above the 70% threshold.

"The Class of 2017 must be commended for maintaining this trend. The 2017 NSC overall pass rate, with the progressed learners excluded, stands at 76.5%, a 0.3% improvement from the 76.2% achieved in 2016," she said.

"However, with the progressed learners included, the overall pass rate, stands at 75.1%, a 2.6% improvement from the 72.5% achieved in 2016. This, represents a total of 401 435 candidates, who had passed the 2017 NSC examinations. Well done to the Class of 2017."

On Wednesday, the Minister and her team briefed President Jacob Zuma on the performance of the 2017 matrics at his home in KwaZulu-Natal.

Following the announcement on Thursday evening, candidates' individual results will be made available on 5 January 2018 at the school or centre where they wrote their exams. Their partial results will be made available on the department’s website.

A total of 634 527 full-time and 168 109 part-time candidates were registered to write the exams.

KwaZulu-Natal presented the highest number of full-time candidates with 153 624 learners. Gauteng, with 41 952 candidates, contributed the most part-time candidates in the 2017 NSC examination.

In the Eastern Cape, 83 968 full time and 21 789 part-time candidates - totalling 105 757 candidates, registered for the Grade 12 NSC examinations.

The department had made provision for 3 805 full-time and 544 part-time special needs candidates with barriers to learning such as dyslexia, blindness and deafness.

The Class of 2017 was the fourth Grade 12 cohort to write final examinations under the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS).

While the class of 2017 is the 10th group of learners to sit for the NSC, it is only the fourth to write the CAPS aligned NSC examination.

Umalusi, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training, announced last week that the 2017 National Senior Certificate examinations were credible.

According to Umalusi, there were 104 001 (16%) progressed learners in the Class of 2017. This is slightly down from the 108 742 of 2016.

Read Minister Motshekga's full speech below - courtesy of eNCA: