KZN's matric pass rate increases by 7.9%
KwaZulu-Natal's matric pass rate has gone up by 7.9% to 69.5% in comparison to 61.6% in 2015.
Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshegka made the announcement during the release of the national results of the 2016 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations in Midrand, Johannesburg.
Despite KZN's performance in 2016, the province remains one of the three worst-performing provinces ahead of the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.
KZN was also one of the three that attained a pass rate of less than 70%.
The province though yielded the most Bachelor passes also recorded the most number of pupils who sat for the NSC exams last year.
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Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says the Free State achieved the best overall results.
"The Free State attained 93.2%. It's an increase from the 87.7% in 2015. It's also the only province that has broken the 90% threshold which has been quite difficult to do," she said.
The class of 2016 achieved a national pass rate of 76.2% excluding the results from progressed learners.
Meanwhile, SADTU has commended teachers for their hard work over the past year which saw more Grade-12s from schools in township and rural areas passing. The overall matric pass rate stands at 72,5%. More than 78 000 pupils from Quintiles 1, 2 and 3 - the poorest schools - received Bachelor passes.
The National Teachers' Union says it's impressed by the improvement in the number of candidates that achieved Bachelor endorsements. The union feels the increased figure shows that teachers are now beginning to master CAPS - the curriculum which was implemented three years ago.