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Director-General of Basic Education Mathanzima Mweli
Director-General of Basic Education Mathanzima Mweli says failure and repetition rates are higher in South Africa. He says not the same number of pupils who enter Grade 1 finish Grade 12.
He says the Class of 2024 was a unique class, adding that the throughput rate in South Africa has improved and is sitting at 64%.
The throughput rate is defined as the rate at which a student cohort successfully completes a qualification within the stipulated timeframe for that qualification.
Mweli acknowledges that more can be done to keep learners from dropping out of the schooling system.
The Department of Basic Education gives a technical briefing ahead of the 2024 Matric Results:
IEB
The Independent Examinations Board (IEB) achieves an overall pass rate of 98.47% in the 2024 matric exam. This is the highest pass rate recorded in the past five years.
All candidates, who successfully completed the 2024 IEB matric exams, obtained a pass that qualifies them for tertiary study.
At SAHETI school, east of Johannesburg, there were tears of joy for many matric learners as the results were announced.
SAHETI achieves 285 distinctions, with top achiever Jason Barbis excelling across 9 subjects with a remarkable 98% average.
Barbis says these are the results he was aiming for. “I was aiming for 9 distinctions – the 98. I was aiming as high as I possibly could for that. I have been top throughout high school but it’s something I had to maintain. I’m thinking of going to UCT to do a maths degree. Maybe Actuarial or applied maths.”
Online education
Meanwhile, online education provider Brainline has seen an increase in matric pass rates for the Class of 2024. Their matric results increased from 88.2% in 2023 to 88.8% in 2024.
Two of their learners achieved 7 distinctions.
Brainline CEO says the year-on-year consistent performance by learners is a testimony to the efficiency of online learning
“How wonderful it is that online education is increasing access to education in South Africa. If ever one would like proof of the success of distance education using an online platform this surely is. Visionary approaches from Umalusi, Visionary approaches from Independent Examination Board (IEB) they registered us as an education institution actually shows you how bright the futures of online education in South Africa can actually be.”
