Western Cape continues to close the education inequality gap

This morning I visited COSAT (Centre of Science and Technology) in Khayelitsha to celebrate with learners as they received their individual matric results.

COSAT’s matric pass rate increased to 99.0% in 2023, up from 92.5% last year, which is a fantastic result! Moreover, 61.2% of their candidates achieved a bachelors pass, which is a key indicator of quality matric passes.

Every candidate at the school enrols for Mathematics and Physical Sciences, which are key indicators of education quality. This year, COSAT achieved a Mathematics pass rate of 99.0%, and a Physical Sciences pass rate of 91.3%.

The school produced a whopping 107 distinctions this year, including 10 Mathematics distinctions (including 3 candidates with over 90% for Mathematics) and 4 Physical Sciences distinctions.

Principal Tiro Motaung explained the source of the school’s success, saying:

“Our success is rooted in the culture of hard work, long school days (we finish school at 16:00 from Tuesday to Thursday),  Saturday school for intervention, issue two reports per term, and offer a variety of after school activities like Robotics, STEM club, debate, music and sports. We embody our school motto ‘No excuses, just success’.”

We congratulate Principal Motaung and his staff, and the COSAT candidates, on this incredible set of results!

District results

We are once again in Metro East Education District this year, for a very important reason. For years, this district and its schools were largely written off as doomed to bottom of the district table due to tough socio-economic circumstances.

Director Landie Diamond declared last year that in 2023 the district would break through the 80% barrier. And break through they did, achieving a pass rate of 83.52% – a jump of 5.23 percentage points which is the largest district increase in the province!

The district’s bachelor’s pass rate has also broken through the 40% barrier, increasing by 2.46 percentage points to 41.87%, meaning that more learners in some of our poorest communities have achieved a quality matric pass that allows them to attend university.

We congratulate the entire district team and our Metro East schools for these achievements!

We now have five districts in the 80%+ range:

• Metro North Education District (85.40%) is our top achieving district – congratulations to Director Wendy Horn and her team for this achievement.
• Eden and Central Karoo Education District (84.59%)
• Overberg Education District (83.88%)
• Metro East Education District (83.52%)
• Metro Central Education District (80.89%)

Metro South Education District (77.89%), West Coast Education District (77.69%), and Cape Winelands Education District (74.61%), will be hard at work this year to move into the 80%+ range.

Quintile results

There is more good news to share in terms of our quintile results, where our no-fee Quintile 1, 2 and 3 schools are rapidly closing the education inequality gap.

Schools in Quintile 1, despite their tough socioeconomic circumstances, increased their pass rate for the second year running to 72.0%. They also achieved a bachelors pass rate of 27.7%, also an increase from last year, and we have no doubt they will move into the 30%+ category soon!

Our Quintile 2 schools have achieved extraordinary results this year, increasing their pass rate by a massive 7.2 percentage points to 77.5%! More importantly, they boosted their bachelors pass rate to 30.5%, allowing these candidates to attend university.

And our Quintile 3 schools achieved a 78.0% pass rate and a 32.2% bachelors pass rate, both increases on last year’s scores, once again proving that where there is a will, there is a way, and lower quintile school can produce brighter futures for our learners.

Re-marks, re-checks, and June 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.

We encourage all learners who did not achieve their desired marks to apply for a re-mark or re-check if they do not feel their results reflect their performance, or to write the exams in June. More information on these options is available on the WCED website.

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.

Congratulations again to our #ClassOf2023 – you have worked so hard and can be extremely proud of these results!

Candidates can collect their results from their schools today, 19 January 2023. They are also available on the WCED website: https://wcedonline.westerncape.gov.za/

Media Enquiries:
Kerry Mauchline
Spokesperson to Minister David Maynier
Western Cape Ministry of Education
Kerry.Mauchline@westerncape.gov.za