Western Cape school and district results deliver more good news!

This morning I visited Scottsville Secondary School to celebrate the release of the individual 2021 National Senior Certificate results to learners.

The school had the greatest improvement in pass rate last year across the whole province, from 29.5% in 2020 to 64.0% in 2021 with a similar number of matrics writing in both years – an increase of 34.5 percentage points! They also achieved a 22.5% bachelors pass rate – double what it was last year.

I congratulate Principal Henry Hockey and his team, and I look forward to an even greater improvement this year.

A number of other schools have also achieved impressive increases in pass rate:

• Range Secondary School: 77.4% (+29.6)
• Y2K College: 95.2% (+27.7) – independent
• Silverstream Secondary School: 62.5% (+27.5)
• Manenberg Secondary School: 57.3% (+27.3)
• Steenberg Secondary School: 92.7% (+26.2)
• Brandvlei Youth Centre: 94.7% (+25.9) – independent
• Mandlenkosi Secondary School: 80.0% (+25.8)

I can also report the number of underperforming schools achieving a pass rate of less than 60% has decreased this year, from 52 in 2020 to 40 in 2021. (We use the 60% pass rate level to determine which schools need attention, rather than the 40% level used by the DBE.) This is a large improvement, and impressive during a pandemic, and we congratulate all the schools who upped their game in challenging conditions. We will work closely with the remaining underperforming schools to ensure that they, too, can improve their results.

District performance

Yesterday, the national minister announced that two of our districts – Metro North Education District, and Eden and Central Karoo Education District – have ranked in the top 10 in the country. I again congratulate Director Wendy Horn of MNED, and Director Jewel Jonkers of ECKED, on this outstanding achievement. ECKED also had the largest increase in pass rate of all our districts.

I am pleased to be in the Metro East Education District today, as the district which had the second largest increase in pass rate after ECKED, from 73.24% in 2020 to 77.14% in 2021. I thank Director Landeka Diamond for the hard work she is doing in that district, and look forward to even greater things to come!

The district results are as follows:

• Cape Winelands: 76.31% (-2.15)
• Eden and Central Karoo: 84.33% (+5.26)
• Metro Central: 82.76% (-0.01)
• Metro East: 77.14% (+3.90)
• Metro North: 85.87% (+0.76)
• Metro South: 79.66% (+1.41)
• Overberg: 81.55% (+1.11)
• West Coast: 80.68% (-1.54)

Quintile performance

There is more good news to share in terms of quintiles.

I am also very pleased to announce, that for the first time since the inception of the NSC, quintile 3 schools achieved a higher pass rate than quintile 4 schools. In addition, they also achieved a higher percentage of bachelor passes!

In 2021, quintile 3 schools achieved a pass rate of 75.8% and a bachelor pass rate of 32.5%, compared to quintile 4 with a 74.7% pass rate and a 30.2% bachelor rate. We will work with our quintile 4 schools over the coming year to ensure that they improve further as well.

The reduction in the inequality gap between our quintile 4-5 schools and our quintile 1-3 schools is significant. We have worked hard to reduce this gap and the effort is paying off.

If we compare our performance from 2008, when the first NSC examination was written, to today, our poorer schools have made great strides.  The gap between the pass rate of quintile 1-3 schools and quintile 4 schools decreased from 12.4 percentage points to 1.6 percentage points. The gap between quintile 1-3 schools and quintile 5 schools reduced from 31.5 percentage points to 16.9 percentage points.

It is our vision to provide quality education to every learner, in every classroom, in every school in the Province – these stats evidently show that, with continued determination and commitment, we are on track to achieve it! Congratulations to our quintile 1-3 schools for this remarkable achievement.

Re-marks and supplementary exams

For those candidates that did not achieve their desired results, there are options. I would encourage all learners who did not pass their exams not to give up and to continue doing whatever they can to complete Grade 12.

There are measures in place to receive counselling for anyone who is disappointed with their results, either by approaching their school, which will put them in touch with the relevant people in the district offices, or by phoning the Safe Schools Hotline - 0800 45 46 47.

Those that qualify for supplementary examinations must apply by 18 February 2022. Application forms will be available at schools and on the WCED website.

Learners can apply for remarks (R104 per subject) and rechecks (R25 per subject) until 4 February 2022. They can apply using the online service: http://www.eservices.gov.za/

More information on these options is available here: https://wcedonline.westerncape.gov.za/national-senior-certificate-nsc-exams-november-2021

Congratulations again to our Class of 2021 – a fantastic set of achievements of which we can all be very proud!

Learners can check their results here: https://cemis.westerncape.gov.za/pls/lts2005.learner_exams.home?ft=p1hp