Media Release
Minister of Education Donald Grant
Western Cape

13 January, 2014

NSC award criteria for the Western Cape National Senior Certificate 2013 Awards Ceremony.

Statements by Minister Donald Grant, Minister of Education, Western Cape

Tomorrow, the Western Cape Government and the Western Cape Education Department will be acknowledging and celebrating the achievements of learners and schools that have excelled academically in the 2013 National Senior Certificate Examinations.

Recipients of these awards are identified through a set list of criteria compiled by the WCED.

In the last three years we have expanded the original criteria for the NSC awards, creating additional categories to incentivize our schools and learners to produce even better results.

These criteria are in line with the overall strategic objectives and vision of this province and the priorities we have set, namely, increasing the number of learners that write and pass the NSC, the quality of passes achieved, such as the number of candidates who qualify for degree study, as well as consistency in performance by schools.

The criteria will also take into account, in some categories, improvements in the number of Mathematics passes.

The WCED's top 20 excellent schools are determined by the following four indicators:

• Consistency in number of grade 12 candidates over a period of 3 years (at least 90%)

• an overall pass rate of at least 95% in 2013

• % of candidates with access to Bachelor's degree

• % of candidates with Mathematics passes

In the "Most improved school" category, awards will be made to schools that have shown the greatest increase in the numbers of candidates that pass over the period 2011 to 2013, as well as, awards to schools that have shown the greatest increase in the number of candidates achieving access to Bachelor's degree studies over the period 2011 to 2013.

Awards will also be given to schools for individual subjects.

These subjects are Mathematics, Physical Science, Accounting, English Home Language, Afrikaans Home Language and isiXhosa Home Language.

There are two categories within this section - one for "Improvement" in the subject and another for "excellence" in the subject.

The schools to be celebrated are from a range of economic circumstances, geographic areas and serve learners across a variety of socio-economic backgrounds - rural, township, suburban and inner city.

For individual learners, the WCED will again be presenting a Merit List of candidates for the 2013 NSC.

These candidates will be awarded based on the marks obtained in the best six subjects that fulfil the requirements for the award of a National Senior Certificate.

An individual award will also be given to the top candidate for excellence despite barriers to learning.

Various learner subject awards will be presented to individual candidates who have achieved the best results in subjects such as isiXhosa Home Language, English Home Language, Afrikaans Home Language, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Accounting.

In the 2011 NSC awards we introduced for the first time a special ministerial award. In 2013, this award will be given to candidates who had achieved excellent academic results in the face of tremendous hardship and personal obstacles.

I look forward to the ceremony and celebrating our candidates and schools success.

Media enquiries:
Bronagh Casey
Spokesperson for the Minister of Education, Donald Grant
Western Cape Education Department
Tel: 021 467 2377
Fax: 072 425 3616