Johannesburg - Gauteng Premier David Makhura has saluted the province’s matric class of 2020, teachers, school management teams and the Department of Education for pulling the province through 2020.
Makhura and Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi announced the results of the 2020 Grade 12 Exams in Gauteng and rewarded the province’s top achievers in Ormonde yesterday.
Gauteng placed second nationally after the province’s 110 184 learners achieved an 83.8% pass rate, a 3.5% reduction from the province’s performance in 2019.
The top performing schools in the province are Hoërskool Waterkloof, followed by Hoërskool Menlopark and Hoërskool Garsfontein, all in Pretoria.
Karla Reinecke, a matriculant from Hoërskool Waterkloof, is the top maths and science pupil in the country.
Makhura conveyed the provincial government’s gratitude and saluted the class of 2020, the learners’ parents, teachers, principals and school governing bodies and the Department of Education for pulling the province through 2020.
“This was not an easy year but our province is still standing. We are the number two in the republic and we know we dropped but when I look at the performance of the passes, I am happy,” Makhura said.
He said the provincial government was very proud of the learners.
“With everything we have done to try to safeguard the future of our children, history will absolve us that they did their best. They may have got certain things wrong and they learnt from their mistakes but the future of our children was not compromised.”
The MEC dedicated the performance of the class of 2020 to the sacrifices made by those who lost their lives due to Covid-19, including 34 teachers and 18 officials of the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE).
Lesufi said the class of 2020 showed resilience and delivered, despite being faced with severe disruptions to teaching and learning brought about by the pandemic.
He said 73% of learners who wrote matric in Gauteng last year could go to any higher education institution.
The province achieved the highest number of candidates qualifying for Bachelor studies with 49 679 who wrote qualifying, compared with 43 494 in 2019.
Lesufi said he was especially pleased with the performance of township schools that achieved a 100% pass rate and a Bachelor rate above 60%.
These include Diepsloot Secondary No 2 in Diepsloot, Rusoord Secondary School in Sedibeng, Marlboro Gardens Secondary School in Marlboro Gardens and Denver Secondary School in Jeppestown.
The MEC was however unimpressed with the province’s worst performing township school, Kgothalang Secondary School in Westonaria, where out of the 234 learners that wrote the exam, only 31% passed. The school also had no distinctions and only 5% of the learners obtained a Bachelor pass.
The suburban school that took the position of the worst performer was Eureka High School in Springs, which managed a 54% pass rate.
The GDE said it was happy that all of its 15 districts performed above the national average of 76.2%.
Gauteng’s top three districts were Tshwane South with a 89.6% pass rate, Johannesburg West with a 88.1% pass rate and Gauteng North with a 87% pass rate.
“The Tshwane West District must be applauded for being the only district that saw an increase in performance from 84.8% to 85%, while all other districts had a decline due to the impact of the pandemic on learning,” Lesufi said.
The Star