It was the day the matric class of 2020 had been waiting for. On Tuesday February 23, they finally got their results of an exam written under unprecedented conditions as the world battled the Covid-19 pandemic.
The day before, Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga had announced that the class of 2020 secured a pass rate of 76.2%, a 5.1% decline compared to that of the year 2019.
Nationally, the Free State province came out tops, with a pass rate of 85.1%, with Gauteng coming in second with a 83.8% pass rate and the Western Cape in third place with a 79.9% pass rate – decline of 2.4% and the first time since 2010 the province had not achieved an 80% pass rate.
Hout Bay High School, however, had something to celebrate. Their matrics achieved a 94.1% pass rate, up from the 81.5% they achieved in 2019. They also obtained a 47.1% bachelors pass rate, compared to their 33.3% achieved in 2019.
The principal, however, could not be reached for comment before this story was published.
At Silikamva High School, too, things were looking up. They recorded a 61.7% pass rate, up the from 40% achieved in 2019.
Head of department at the school, Hene Zanele, said this was a major achievement for the school, considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic – and the fact that they did not have a principal.
“We got our matric results and it was very exciting. The 2019 results were very low and because we went up, this has made us very excited for the year,” she said.
“We are very proud since we were on our own without a principal. The SMT (school management team) worked hard to produce these results.”
The school will be looking to improve even further this year, creating extra classes for the Grade 12s and assigning each pupil with a guardian to mentor and support.
They also formed a Learner Management System (LMS), which is an online teaching system where teachers are able to upload lessons for pupils to use.
“We are determined that this year will be a great year and excellent results,” Ms Zanele said.
The Hout Bay International School were proud to share their matric results of their 2020 International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.
Their class of 2020 produced a 100% pass rate and an overall average of 35 points with their top two achievers, Ulrich van Staden (40) and Isabel Pitcher (42) obtained above the 40 mark.
“Congratulations to our entire class of 2020 on these outstanding results,” the school said in a statement.
