The anticipated release of the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results tomorrow will also be a test of whether some of the country’s lowest-performing schools have shown improvement following interventions introduced after the 2024 exams.
In 2024, nine high schools nationally recorded pass rates below 20%, placing them in the lowest performance category out of 6 925 schools that presented candidates for the NSC. Although the number represents just 0.1% of schools nationally, the outcomes highlighted persistent weaknesses at the margins of the education system.
The underperforming schools were spread across four provinces: four in the Eastern Cape, two each in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, and one in the Northern Cape. No schools in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, North West or Western Cape fell into this category.
Within the underperforming group, three schools recorded a 0% pass rate, having not recorded a single pupil passing the exams. These were located in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape, raising concerns about oversight, learner support and the effectiveness of remedial programmes.
However, official data indicate that not all zero-pass outcomes involved fully registered schools. In the Eastern Cape, an academy called City of Light registered four matric candidates, none of whom passed.
The institution did not have an EMIS number, meaning it was not registered as a formal school in the national education system.
In Mpumalanga, Bukhosibetfu Primary School in the Ehlanzeni district functioned as a writing centre where 15 pupils sat for matric examinations, with none passing. The centre also did not have an EMIS number, according to official records.
In the Northern Cape, Retlameleng Special School, which is registered, presented three matric candidates, all of whom failed.
At the opposite end of the performance spectrum, 902 schools nationally achieved a 100% pass rate in 2024, representing 13% of all schools nationally. KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest number with 321 high-performing schools, accounting for 18.2% of schools in the province. Gauteng followed with 147 schools (15.8%), while the Free State boasted 67 (18.9%) such schools.
The Eastern Cape had 63 schools with a perfect pass rate (6.5%), Mpumalanga 58 (10.1%), and the Western Cape 78 (16.8%). Limpopo recorded 109 schools (8.5%), the North West 44 (9.9%), and the Northern Cape 15 (10.4%). The figures reflect wide provincial disparities between high-performing and struggling schools.
Announcing the 2024 results, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said, “As an education system, we continuously evaluate our progress in terms of the social justice principles of access, redress, equity, quality, efficiency and inclusivity.”
She noted that 615 429 candidates obtained the NSC, the highest number in the country’s history.
“There is urgent and substantial work to be done to improve the quality of education outcomes that our schooling system must achieve,” she said.
UJ associate professor Mlamuli Hlatshwayo said turning underperforming schools around will not happen overnight.
“These schools are underperforming due to a large number of reasons that we are facing in the country,” he said.
Hlatshwayo listed, among others, underfunding, lack of academic infrastructure and geopolitical location of underperforming schools as contributors to poor educational outcomes.
“In most cases, these schools are in townships or rural areas, where geography is really a problem. We have kids in this country quite shamefully walking from six to 20 kilometres to school. It’s not an issue of just distance but also safety.
“To make it worse, you have kids whose only source of a meal in a day is at the school.”
