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Media Release
Minister of Education Debbie Schäfer
Western Cape

5 January, 2015

Minister Schäfer congratulates successful learners in the Western Cape.

Statement by Minister Debbie Schäfer, Minister of Education

On the release of the 2014 National Senior Certificate, I would like to congratulate the 82.2% of learners in the Western Cape who passed the 2014 NSC examination, especially given the indications that, in many respects, the examinations were reportedly more difficult.

In light of this we are also especially proud that the Western Cape has again achieved the highest percentage of bachelor's passes in the country, with 38.8% of learners achieving this quality pass.

We have also improved our Mathematics pass rate from 73.3% to 73.9%. Physical Sciences decreased slightly by 1.9% to 70.7%.

The Western Cape Government has said year on year, that when considering the NSC results, one has to consider the numbers of learners passing through the system and ultimately passing their matric. We believe that retaining more learners in the system and giving them the opportunity to pass the NSC is more important than "losing" learners along the way so that schools can achieve a higher pass rate.

We believe that this practice defeats the purpose of education for these children and is unacceptable. It denies them the opportunity to succeed, no matter what challenges lie before them.

Therefore, when considering the NSC pass rate, it is important that we consider the retention of learners by comparing the number of learners enrolled for the NSC exams to the number of Grade 10 learners enrolled two years before that. This is known as the "Real Matric pass rate".

Unlike the overall "pass rate", the "real matric pass rate" factors in the retention rate.

The results of the "real matric pass rate" for the 2014 NSC show a very different 'ranking' to that announced by the National Minister for Education this evening:

	Pupils in grade 10 in 2012 - PO schools only	Numbers who passed the NSC- Public Ordinary schools and Independent	% of passing the NSC in 2014 compared to 2012. - The real matric pass rate	Ranking	% of learners that have not been retained or passed their NSC.
EASTERN CAPE	145 683	43 777	30%	9	70%
FREE STATE	58 599	21 899	37%	5	63%
GAUTENG	176 138	84 247	47.8%	2	52.2%
KWAZULU-NATAL	259 326	97 144	37.4%	4	62.6%
LIMPOPO	172 398	53 179	30.8%	8	69.2%
MPUMALANGA	91 283	35 615	39%	3	61%
NORTH WEST	67 409	22 061	32.7%	6	67.3%
NORTHERN CAPE	21 379	6 715	31.4%	7	68.6%
WESTERN CAPE	73 114	39 237	53.6%	1	46.4%