GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Plettenberg Bay and Knysna matrics have shown that the area is a force to be reckoned with academically when the two towns substantially exceeded the national pass rate.
The seven government high schools in the area managed to obtain a 78% pass rate, while nationally only 75.1% of matriculants made the grade.
The Western Cape managed an 84.4% pass rate, taking third spot among all the provinces in the country. The Free State had the highest pass rate, at 89.8%, followed by Gauteng, 86.4%. These figures include progressed learners.
Three of the schools in Plett and Knysna managed to show an improvement on last year's results. The biggest improvement came from Concordia High School in Knysna, which managed a 76.4% pass rate compared to last year's 55.1%.
At Murray High School in Plettenberg Bay the school reaped the fruits of their efforts after hosting a matric-exams camp at the school where learners could prepare for the finals. Because many of the learners live in challenging circumstances where it is near impossible to concentrate on studying, the school opened its doors for the matrics. Learners lived at the school during the prep camp, received meals and had the opportunity to study under the guidance of teachers.
This proved a valuable endeavour as 83.5% of the school's matriculants passed compared to last year's 76.9%.
Plettenberg Bay Secondary School also showed a slight improvement with 66.1% compared to the previous year's 60%.
Knysna High School, however, saw a small drop from last year's perfect pass rate, to 97.8%. Two learners out of 90 did not make the grade.
At Knysna Secondary the pass rate dropped from 86.6% to 62% and at Percy Mdala High School 66.3% of matriculants passed compared to last year's 78%.
Wittedrift High School in Plett also saw a small decrease in the pass rate after three of the 52 learners failed. Last year, the school achieved a 100% pass rate and this year it is down to 94.2%.
The area's independent schools also made the area proud. Both Oakhill School and Knysna Montessori School managed yet another 100% pass rate.
At Oakhill, the 42 candidates managed to obtain 99 distinctions – four youngsters with six distinctions, four with five distinctions and six with four distinctions.
Five of the school's learners made it into the top 1% of candidates per subject nationally for life orientation.
At Knysna Montessori, 87% of learners managed a university pass and distinctions were achieved across a wide range of subjects.
Western Cape education minister Debbie Schafer said while there is a tendency to focus solely on the provincial pass rate they also consider other important indicators of success so that they could then determine if the system is ultimately improving or where it needs to be improved.
"Traditionally, this province has put particular emphasis on the retention of learners in the system, those achieving access to a bachelor's degree, and pass rates for mathematics and science," Schafer said.
She added that thus she was especially pleased that the Western Cape had again achieved the highest percentage of bachelor's passes in the country, at 39.1%.
"In mathematics, the Western Cape achieved the highest pass rate, achieving 73.9%. In physical sciences, the Western Cape achieved a pass rate of 74.0%. This places us second in the country to the Free State in this subject for 2017."
She added that the province also delivered eight education districts that achieved more than 80%.
Top achievers from Percy Mdala High School were elated when they saw their exceptional results on Friday 5 June, which included several distinctions. For some of them, it opens the door to their future life as doctors, engineers and lawyers if all goes according to plan. But first, the studies await. Photo: Nwabisa Pondoyi
Matric results Wittedrift. Wittedrift High School matriculants Simnikiwe Mbete and Zukhanyise Skosana celebrate their matric results. Photo: Ewald Stander
Read a previous article: Plett and Knysna matric results
'We bring you the latest Garden Route news'
