Pretoria- Parliament has congratulated the grade 12 learners who passed their 2016 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations.
The class of 2016 raised the bar and put the national pass rate at 76.2%, which is up from 74% recorded in 2015.
This year’s results include more than 162 000 matriculants who are eligible for admission to university for bachelor's degrees.
The Select Committee on Education and Recreation and the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education congratulated the learners saying their performance shows progressive improvement in the basic education system.
The pass rate was also evidence of the cooperation between the department, parents, teachers and learners, which is central to improving the quality of children’s education, the committee said.
“The Committee remains steadfast in its belief in active participation by parents in ensuring that their children get the quality of education enshrined in the Constitution,” Chairperson of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation Lungelwa Zwane said on Thursday.
Both Committees congratulated the Free State Provincial Education Department for its 93.2% pass rate, up from 81.6% last year.
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education Nomalungelo Gina hoped that Free State’s strategies, and those of other high performing provinces, can be replicated by struggling provinces.
Despite concern that the high enrolment in 2016 for the NSC would result in a reduced pass rate, the Committees welcomed the year-on-year improvements in the NSC pass rate.
A total of 828 020 candidates registered for the 2016 NSC examination, of which 674 652 were full time learners.
“We are extremely proud of this performance in the public schooling sector with six provinces achieving above the 80% threshold.”
However there are concerns about the 18 schools that continued to produce no matric passes. The committee urged the Department of Basic Education to do everything in its power to assist these underperforming schools.
“This situation should not be allowed to continue. Urgent intervention with regular monitoring is required. Ultimately it is our learners that suffer. We need to turn this situation around for them,” Gina said. -SAnews.gov.za
