By Libuseng Nyaka
QWAQWA- Announcing the 2023 matric results on Thursday January 18, 2024 Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga has lauded learners for their resilience.
She said this year cohort faced challenges but still managed to excel through using interventions introduced for both learners and educators.
“The policy shifts introduced to mitigate the deleted educators serious effects of COVID-19; the strengthening of the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the curriculum and assessment practices; the resilience of this cohort; the stability and the maturity of a system on a rise; the involvement of all communities of trust within the Basic Education Sector in our schools; the psycho-social support as well as care and support for teaching and learning provided to learners as well as parental involvement to ensure the safety of learners at school during extra tuition.”
Revealing provincial performances Motshekga said:
“The Free State is the leading province at 89.3 percent , an increase of 0.5 percent from 2022. We must observe the passing of the former MEC of Education in the Free State, Dr Tate Makgoe, who passed on last year. May his soul rest in eternal peace. KwaZulu-Natal, the third best improved province, achieved 86.4 percent, an increase of 3.4 percent from 2022 and Gauteng achieved at 85.4 percent , an increase of 1.0 percent from 2022.”
Other provinces are North west at position four with 86.6 percent, Western Cape achieved 81.5percent. On the fifth 5th position is the second, best improved province, sixth is the Eastern Cape, with an achievement of 81.4percent, the best improved province is Limpopo, with an achievement of 79.5 percent , Mpumalanga achieved at 77.0 percent, and Northern Cape achieved at 75.8 percent.
“Facts show that the class of 2023 is the tenth cohort exposed to the CAPS-based National Senior Certificate examinations. The age profile of candidates enrolling for the NSC exams, has been improving over the years. Most poignantly, in 2023, 88.2 percent of the full-time candidates, and 47.8 percent of the part-time candidates were 16-20 years of age when they enrolled for the 2023 NSC examinations.”
According to Motshekga of the total number of eight hundred and ninety-seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five (897 775) total number of candidates, who registered for the 2023 NSC exams, as indicated earlier, seven hundred and fifteen thousand, seven hundred and nineteen (715 719) were full-time candidates; while one hundred and eighty-two thousand, and fifty-six (182 056) were part-time candidates.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
“As indicated in previous years, we did mention that our curriculum offerings are in the continuous process of refinement and alignment. Part of this work, we did by introducing more subjects in the vocational and technical fields.
Some of the new subjects we introduced, included Maritime Economics, Sports and Exercise Science, Nautical Sciences, Equine Studies, and Maritime Sciences.
We introduced a Practical Assessment Task (PAT) for Technical Mathematics; as well as changes in the structure and duration of some of the question papers. Our technical report has all the information on participation and performance in these subjects.”
