The Matric Class of 2024 has achieved an overall pass rate of 87.3%, making it the highest matric pass rate in the history of South Africa.
“I am proud to announce that in 2024, 615 429 learners passed the National Senior Certificate (NSC) – more than any other time in our history. South Africa’s national pass rate for the 2024 National Senior Certificate has therefore increased from 82.9% in 2023 to 87.3%,” Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube said on Monday.
Addressing the announcement of the 2024 NSC results in Johannesburg, Gwarube said this was the highest matric pass rate in the history of the country and should be a moment of great pride and celebration for all.
Nearly half of the learners who wrote the NSC examinations received a Bachelor pass.
Bachelor passes
According to the Minister, 47.8% of candidates qualified for admission to Bachelor studies, which is a significant improvement from last year’s 40.9% and represents the highest number of Bachelor passes in recent history.
“This is a 6.9% increase from last year. In 2014, we produced 150 752 Bachelor passes. In just a decade this number has more than doubled in 2024 to 337 158 Bachelor passes.
“It is also encouraging to see that some of our provinces with the highest numbers of learners are achieving high numbers of Bachelor passes.
“In 2024, I am pleased to announce that KwaZulu Natal achieved the highest number of Bachelor passes with 84 470, followed by Gauteng with 66 979 and the Eastern Cape with 45 662,” the Minister said.
Approximately 67% of the Bachelor passes achieved in 2024 came from Quintile 1 to 3 schools, which are typically found in poorer communities.
“This percentage represents an increase from 2023. This means that poorer communities are producing more and more candidates who can go on to become doctors, engineers, accountants and scientists,” she said.
Distinctions
The Class of 2024 achieved an impressive number of 319 651 distinctions.
“This represents a significant increase of over 65 000 distinctions from last year. Some of these increases were seen in key subjects, including Mathematics. I am pleased to report that every province increased the number of distinctions achieved in 2023.
“KwaZulu Natal was once more the top performing province in terms of the percentage of candidates obtaining distinctions, with 10.8% distinction potential achieved.
“Coming in second with 6.3% of distinction potential achieved was the Western Cape, followed by Gauteng with 5.3%. Notable progress was made by Mpumalanga and Limpopo in this regard where we saw this percentage increase by over 1% in 2024 when compared to the results for 2023,” Gwarube explained.
Every province improved on its performance from 2023, and every province achieved above 84%.
Mathematics and Physical Sciences
In 2024, 69.1% of learners passed Mathematics, which is an increase from 63.5% in 2023.
However, in Physical Sciences, while 75.6% of learners passed, this was a decrease from 76.2% in 2023.
“While the number and percentage of learners achieving distinctions in Mathematics increased in 2024 from 2023, the number and percentage of learners achieving distinctions in Physical Sciences has dropped.
“The improvement in performance in Mathematics is encouraging. However, the decreasing participation rates in these key subjects, and the decrease in performance in Physical Sciences, highlight the urgent need to improve foundational literacy and numeracy to ensure that our schooling system produces learners who are confident and capable enough to choose and excel in Maths and Science subjects throughout their schooling career,” the Minister said.
Improvements
In 2024, more high schools achieved a pass rate in the NSC examinations of between 80% and 100% than in 2023.
“In 2023, the number of high schools achieving this was 4 493 and in 2024 this number increased to 5 387 representing 77.7% of our high schools. Also important to note is that the number of underperforming schools has decreased,” the Minister said.
Approximately 97% of learners enrolled for Grade 12 in 2024 ultimately wrote the NSC exams in 2024.
“In 2024, we saw the number of full-time candidates writing the National Senior Certificate examinations increase from 691 160 in 2023 to 705 291 in 2024.
“We also saw the number of learners with special education needs who wrote the National Senior Certificate examinations increase from 5 288 in 2023 to 6 470 in 2024.
“Furthermore, we saw 556 726 learners who are beneficiaries of social grants writing the National Senior Certificate exams in 2024 – 12 938 more than in 2023,” the Minister said.
She said the 2024 National Senior Certificate results for 2024 show that the schooling system was maturing, but that there was still much work to be done to improve the quality of education outcomes.
Earlier in the day, the Minister together with mobile network provider, MTN hosted a Ministerial Breakfast in honour of 39 matric top achievers.
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