Matric pass rate drops 5% to 76.2%

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the matric pass rate on Monday.

The class of 2020 achieved 76.2% - a drop of 5.1%from the previous year.

"There's no doubt that the system has begun to reach the desired stability. We needed to get the right stability to get the right traction which is healthy for a system as large and important as ours.

"It is a pity that we missed the 80% glass ceiling we achieved last year but we also appreciate greatly the resilience of our schools because we think the class of 2020 held its own," she said.

Free State ranked the highest province with a pass rate above 85%, followed by Gauteng with 83.3%.

The Northern Cape achieved the lowest of the 9 provinces, with 66.6% of its pupils finding favour with the department.

Motshekga admitted the Covid-19 pandemic had a devasting impact on lives and the academic year.

But she added this year's cohort of pupils achieved high quality results.

"We want to commend all our learners, our teachers, our senior management teams, our support staff, parents and our officials for their resilience they've shown in braving the novel Covid-19 pandemic so that we were not scared ourselves."

"We had to live side by side with corona for the sake of our children and their future," she added.

Motshekga assured the results were given the nod by quality assurance body Umalusi, despite the two November exam leaks.