JOHANNESBURG - 537,543 pupils wrote government's National Senior Certificate examination in 2010. 364,513 (67.8%) passed - an 11,9% increase from the 2009 pass rate. Mpumalanga (18.6%), Limpopo (18.2%), KwaZulu-Natal (15,7%) and the Eastern Cape (14.3%) all saw the biggest jump in their pass rates. The Western Cape had the smallest percentage increase (1,5%), allowing Gauteng (9.5%) to overtake it as the province with the highest pass rate. (Table 1)
The number of pupils passing with a ‘Bachelors Pass' increased to 126,371 from 109,697. This meant that 23.5% of those who wrote matric passed with the higher of the three grades of pass, up from 19.9% in 2009 (a 18,1% increase.) The Western Cape's bachelor's pass rate was down slightly from 31.9% to 30,9% (-3.1%). Most other provinces saw big percentage increases. (Table 2)
263,034 (or 48,9%) of pupils wrote the mathematics paper, 38,620 fewer than in 2009. Of these 124,749 (or 47,4%) passed with 30%, 14,104 fewer than in 2009. 81,374 (30,9%) passed with more than 40%, 9,325 fewer than in 2009. (See Tables 3 and 4.) This means that of all those who wrote matric 15,1% passed the mathematics paper with more than 40% (down from 16,4% last year).
Table 1: Overall pass rate change 2009-2010:
2009
2010
Point Increase
% increase
Gauteng
71.8
78.6
6.8
9.5%
WCape
75.7
76.8
1.1
1.5%
KZN
61.1
70.7
9.6
15.7%
FS
69.4
70.7
1.3
1.9%
ECape
51
58.3
7.3
14.3%
NWest
67.5
75.7
8.2
12.1%
Ncape
61.3
72.3
11
17.9%
Limpopo
48.9
57.8
8.9
18.2%
Mpumalanga
47.9
56.8
8.9
18.6%
National
60.6
67.8
7.2
11.9%