Matric results: Free State to continue leading the pack?

The Free State Department of Education is confident that it will retain its position as the top-performing province when it comes to the matric results.

The Department of Basic Education will announce the results on Monday, 13 January and release them to candidates on Tuesday, 14 January.

FREE STATE CONFIDENT AHEAD OF RELEASE OF 2024 MATRIC RESULTS

The official matric pass rate for the class of 2023 was 82.9% which was up from 80.1% in 2022. Notably, all provinces had pass rates above the 75% mark.

Free State was the leading province with 89% (for five years in a row) and was surprisingly followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 86.4%. Over the years it was Gauteng, Free State and Western Cape who were always among the top three best-performing provinces.

Speaking to the SABC on Sunday, 12 January, Free State Education spokesperson Howard Ndaba said they did everything in their power to support their learners and schools.

“We have done everything that we’re supposed to do, as such we remain confident that we will perform well owing to the intervention that we deployed to our schools and owing to the support that we have been receiving from parents, school governing bodies and communities,” he said.

[WATCH]
The Free State department of education is optimistic that it will retain its position as number one in the country for the class of 2024. pic.twitter.com/JBMLePMHa6

— SABC News (@SABCNews) January 12, 2025

PROVINCIAL PERFORMANCE

Here are the official 2023 matric results per province:

Free State – 𝟖𝟗%

KwaZulu-Natal – 𝟖𝟔.𝟒%

Gauteng – 𝟖𝟓.𝟒%

North West – 𝟖𝟏.𝟔%

Western Cape – 𝟖𝟏.𝟓%

Eastern Cape – 𝟖𝟏.𝟒%

Limpopo – 𝟕𝟗.𝟓%

Northern Cape – 𝟕𝟕%

Mpumalanga – 𝟕𝟓.𝟖%

ALMOST ONE MILLION CANDIDATES WROTE THE 2024 NSC EXAMS

Almost one million candidates (727 121 full-time and 155 215 part-time) sat for the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams. The exams started on 21 October and candidates wrote the last paper on 28 November.

Meanwhile, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria dismissed the Information Regulator’s urgent application to interdict the publication of matric results in newspapers and other platforms.

The case was heard on Monday, 6 January, and Judge Ronèl Tolmay on Tuesday ruled in favour of the publication of the results. 

The Information Regulator had argued that the publication of the matric results in public media would be a violation of the matriculants’ right to privacy.

However, the judge ruled that it is in the public interest and that the results should therefore be published on public platforms and in printed media.

DO YOU THINK FREE STATE WILL RETAIN ITS POSITION AS THE BEST-PERFORMING PROVINCE?

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