Gauteng reclaims top spot in matric results

Basic Education Minister, Dr Angie Motshekga, announced the national matric certificate results on Thursday, evening.

It showed the Gauteng Class of 2018 rising to the top, followed closely by the Free State and the Western Cape in the third position. 

“Finally the top performing province for 2018 is Gauteng, with an achievement of 87.9%, an improvement of 2.8% from 2017.

“Free State achieved 87.5%, an improvement of 1.4% from 2017 while the Western Cape achieved 81.5%, an improvement of 1.4% from 2017,” said Motshekga.

The more than 800 000 grade 12s achieved an average pass rate of 78.2%, an improvement of 3.1% from the previous year.

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi expressed his excitement over the performance by Gauteng.

"It’s a huge excitement. The Premier gave me a target to reach 40 000 bachelor passes in 2019. I’ve reached 41 000 in 2018. You check the percentage pass it’s the highest, 43% of all bachelor passes come from Gauteng alone in the country. It’s a quality pass. And you check the number of distinctions, I have more distinctions than any other province as well. We have invested in this system and the system has started to gallop at its own pace,” he says. 

A total of 157 000 distinctions have been achieved by the class of 2018, which reflects a decline of 2.6% from 2017.

The main provinces that contributed to the distinctions are KwaZulu Natal, Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Limpopo. 

Some of the country’s top achievers, honoured by Minister Motshekga on Thursday, say they are proud of their achievements.

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