Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane has warned against comparing National Senior Certificate results with those of the Independent Examination Board, which are written by children in private schools.
Chiloane was delivering the keynote address at the Gauteng matric results ceremony at Vodaworld in Midrand, Johannesburg. He reiterated that the achievements of learners who wrote the NSC should not be diminished because of the IEB pass rate.
The overall IEB pass rate is 98.47% while 89.37% of learners achieved bachelor’s admissions. A total of 7.56% qualified to study towards a diploma, and 1.53% achieved entry for higher certificate study.
Can’t compare public school exams with those of private schools
“I saw one leader who was trying to compare IEB and NSC, speaking about bachelor passes. Then I thought to myself, if you are paying R200, 000 school fees and your child fails, I am sure the life of the principal would be at risk,” Chiloane joked.
He then called for all schools to write one exam, whether it was private or public. He believes it will reveal which schools truly provide quality education.
“For me, I cannot see why we cannot write a single examination. We are ready, people must not say there is this IEB and then other ones. This cannot be a topic of conversation for us as politicians, to say that this one is better than that one. We need to resolve it by making one examination for all. Even when with the monitoring, let us monitor all schools. You will see a big difference,” he said.
Gauteng has the third-highest passes as per the 2024 results standing at 88,41%. The province has also achieved the highest number of bachelor passes since 1996. It also achieved the second-highest number in the country.
Best performance since 1995
“This is the best performance since 1995 with a 3% improvement over the 2023 achievement of 85,4%. Congratulations to the Class of 2024! Your hard work and resilience has been justly rewarded,” he reiterated.
While the mood was celebratory, Chiloane also addressed learners who did not manage to pass. He said they can be part of the Second Chance Programme in 2025. The project assists those who have failed to complete the NSC.
There are supplementary examinations, which they can also prepare for.
“It can get difficult that everyone around you has made it. We really have to support our learners and say that success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that really counts,” he said.
