Limpopo matric results decline

LIMPOPO – 53 634 out of 78 695 learners who sat for the 2020 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams have passed.

Limpopo has seen a drop in the provincial matric pass rate to 68.2% which is the third lowest in the country. The province has the lowest pass rate in the country (73.9%) when excluding progressed learners.

A special congratulations goes to the 22 907 students (29.1%) who achieved bachelor passes. This is an increase on the previous year but is below the national performance rate of 36.4%.  18 588 learners managed to achieve a diploma pass, while 12 134 learners achieved a higher certificate pass and 5 learners achieved a NSC pass. The 2020 academic year was riddled with many challenges that contributed to the reduction in the province’s pass rate. Covid-19 contributed to school closures, learner and teacher absenteeism and a lack of support to learners that needed it, due to reduced contact time with learners.

According to the Democratic Alliance (DA), these challenges and the department’s response in the form of ICT provision, online content and virtual classes exposed a historical challenge in the province of insufficient access to internet for  learners and the lack of support from  the Department of Education

“It is also deeply concerning that 134 schools out of the 1370 schools in the province failed to reach a 40% pass rate, 31 of these schools failed to reach even a 20% pass rate (9 schools with 0% pass rate). The DA had anticipated that this year’s matric learners would not perform well, especially in certain gateway subjects,” said the party’s Jacque Smalle.

He added, “There was an underperformance and less than 40% of learners managed to achieve a 40% pass or better in the 2020 NSC exams in key gateway subjects such as Mathematics (31.5%), Physical sciences (38.3%), and Economics (36.0%). These subjects are critical for entrance into higher education”

 

Meanwhile Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha also congratulated the class of 2020.

 

“While the overall performance for the class of 2020 has declined,  I am very happy to say that the percentage of our bachelor  passes has increased.  We have moved from 26.8% bachelor passes in 2019 to 29.1%  in 2020. This is an important achievement for our children. This means that most our children will be able to secure spaces at

various universities across the province and beyond.”