‘Our pupils went to war’ - Lesufi celebrates class of 2021
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) celebrated the province’s top-performing schools and pupils of the matric class of 2021 at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg on Friday.
The province is the second-best performing province in the country for the third consecutive year with a pass rate of 82.2%, which is a 1% decline from 2020.
This was the largest matric class to date with 175 752 who enrolled to write their national senior certificate an increase of 17.55% from 2020.
Gauteng obtained 43.8% Batchelor passes, which is a 1.3% decline from 2020.
However, Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi said the quality of the pupil's performance was exceptional despite the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“55 000 of our children who wrote matric passed with Batchelor passes - maybe you don’t understand this, but what it means is that the Gauteng province alone can fill all first-year spaces in universities across the country,” said Lesufi
6039 more pupils passed with a university entry in 2021.
11 of the 15 Gauteng schooling districts achieved above 80%, the best performing district being Tshwane South at 90%.
Lesufi said this was even though townships experienced the highest number of incidents of service delivery protests during the pandemic.
“The district at the bottom of the bottom is Gauteng East at 77%. I want to address the community of Gauteng East: when you disrupt schools, this is what you get, because that community was disrupted during the July unrest. Every time the community was not happy about something they disrupted and locked school gates, I am not saying don’t fight for your rights, but don’t interfere with schools,” added Lesufi
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