The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape congratulates the grade 12 learners whose hard work and dedication led to the improvement in the Northern Cape’s provincial pass rate, from 75.8% in 2023 to 84.2% in 2024.
It shows remarkable resilience in learners who started high school in the same year that an unprecedented pandemic swept South Africa. These learners and their school communities went the extra length in seeking knowledge, gaining insight, and achieving academic excellence in truly tumultuous circumstances. Whether you plan to continue your studies or to pursue economic opportunities instead, we wish you all the best and trust that this resilience will help you to succeed against any future odds.
Many school communities are worthy of praise for the additional support and effort that went into shaping this matric class, including Friersdale Combined School in Keimoes where sustained effort led to continued improvement in the school’s pass rate from 91% in 2022 to 100% in 2024. These outcomes confirm that schools in rural areas and in lower quintiles can still achieve tremendous results with the right guidance and investment.
It is bittersweet to note that, even though the Northern Cape is the most improved province, it remains last in the national rankings. We look forward to engaging with the provincial education department on strategies that will be implemented to ensure that the province continues to improve and provides higher quality of education to learners, especially the younger cohorts that still must overcome the learning losses sustained during the pandemic.
We must find ways to strengthen the teaching of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, as the enrollment and pass rates in these subjects remain too low. While ZF Mcgawu achieved the best overall pass rate of the Northern Cape’s five districts, its pass rate for Mathematics is only 56.4% and only 69.4% for Physical Sciences. Addressing provincial vacancies for medical practitioners, engineers and town planners can only happen if learners are properly equipped with these essential skills at school.
We also cannot be oblivious to the ongoing onslaught of socio-economic ills that make it difficult for school communities to thrive and that contributes to the drop-out rate, especially the high rate of teenage pregnancy and unemployment that makes it difficult to provide adequate resources to schools.
We owe it to the learners of tomorrow to provide better quality education today.