Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and Education MEC Matome Chiloane are elated after the province achieved the third-highest pass rate in the 2024 National Senior Certificate exams.
The province achieved an 88,41% pass rate and the second highest number of Bachelor passes, second to KwaZulu-Natal. The Gauteng matric class of 2024 recorded a Bachelor pass rate of 50.27% which is a significant increase of 5.98% on the 44.29% achieved in 2023.
Township schools in Gauteng, despite challenges have produced good results. The National Senior Certificate (NSC) pass rate in township schools ranged from 81.32% to 97.01% across the districts while Bachelor passes were between 38.28% to 68.58%.
While other schools outperformed those in the townships, the gap is down by 5.3% from 11% in 2023. Overall the pass rate in Johannesburg West township schools was an impressive 97.01% with a Bachelor pass rate of 68.58%.
Not only did the Johannesburg West District achieve good marks, it was also crowned the best in the country.
Between 83.93% and 92.84% female candidates passed across the five quintiles while their male counterparts achieved between 84.97 and 92.71%.
Out of the 29 registered special schools in Gauteng, 12 retained their 100% overall pass rate of 2023.
Top performing Gauteng learner, 18-year-old Msawenkosi Buthelezi from Springs, Ekurhuleni, overcame great odds outside of the classroom. The area is plagued by socio-economic ills such as crime.
“Basically, where I live, in KwaThema Extension 3, there are a lot of social ills, I see my peers taking drugs and gangsterism…I am happy that I did not fall into it,” he said.
Buthelezi was among the matriculants who were honoured by the Gauteng government on Tuesday. He obtained outstanding marks in mathematics. He scored 299 out of 300 marks, an amazing feat, considering the waning interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects throughout the country.
Buthelezi’s hard work was rewarded with prize money, a tablet and other goodies that will make his first year at university a pleasant experience.
However, he said it was not a smooth sailing journey. It was an arduous personal journey as he had to deal with financial and health issues.
“The main struggles I faced were financial difficulties and health problems. With the financial difficulties, a lot of people were offering help. My teachers, community, mentors and friends,” he said.
“I had to deal with headaches every day but still studied, but my mom was supportive, she even used to cross-night with me,” he reiterated.
Buthelezi has been accepted to study at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and intends to study BSc in neuroscience as well as an MBChB [medical] degree.
“I am very excited to go to UCT, to start a new life for myself and my family.
“Once I am done with my studies, one big thing I would like to do for my family is move them away from Springs,” he said. His advice to the class of 2025 is to set goals and focus on their studies.
Meanwhile, the Raymond Mhlaba School of Specialisation yet again emerged as one of the top schools in Gauteng with a 100% pass rate.
Angie Mokiti, the school’s principal, said the secret to success was doing extra classes throughout the year.
She also said it’s important to ensure learners from unstable homes are given support.
“We push every learner to pass, we even give them a place to stay if they do not have a good home environment. We will arrange a room for the learners to stay. We provide food and transport, but we make sure it is within a 5km radius from the school,” she said.
Mokiti said in 2012 the school introduced an extended teaching programme with additional school days for grade 12 learners. While other schools usually operate from Monday to Friday, their matriculants also have classes on weekends.
“On Saturdays we would teach the learners the whole syllabus, and Sundays it is for Maths and Science. We would teach the learners even during holidays.
“We came up with the strategy to open early, so we can develop a culture with the learners,” she said.
While Mokiti credits teachers at the school for their hard work, she believes the Gauteng Department of Education and Johannesburg West Education District played a big role in the success of schools in the district.
“The department also expects us to ensure that learners pass at accountability sessions with principles. We present our strategies, whether we are going to reach targets and how to mitigate risks,” Mokiti said.
The school, which was first opened in 2009, started specialising in maths, science, information technology and computer application technology with its 2024 grade 8 cohort.
“We only launched our specialisation in 2023, so the grade 9-12 still do the old syllabus and in 2029 we will have the first specialised matriculants.
“We will produce more IT specialists, doctors, academics in the Tech space. It is a very good initiative,” she reiterated.
