By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The 2022 Independent Examinations Board (IEB) matric cohort managed to obtain an impressive 98.42% pass rate in last year’s exams.
The IEB results released on Wednesday show a pass rate slightly higher than last year’s 98.39%.
All of the IEB National Senior Certificate (NSC) candidates who passed achieved good enough grades to proceed to tertiary education at one of the three levels.
About 89.32% of the cohort achieved entry to degree study, compared to 89.2% in 2021.At least 7.52% qualified for entry to diploma study, compared to 7.82% in 2021, and 1.57% compared to 1.37% in 2021 achieved entry for study at a higher certificate level.
The assessment body saw 12 580 full-time candidates and 945 part-time candidates at 232 exam centres write the IEB NSC exams in October and November 2022.
This was less than the 12 857 full-time candidates and 968 part-time candidates in 2021.
IEB results are being published after the quality assurance examination board, Umalusi, announces the approval of the release of the 2022 NSC exam results on Monday.
“The performance of the 2022 cohort of students has been outstanding. There is enough credible research on the impact of Covid-19 on the educational aspects of children to provide insight into where we are at, in coming out of the pandemic almost three years later.
“It is fair to say that this cohort of learners were hardest hit by the impact of the pandemic when it broke in 2020 in their Grade 10 year.
“Various strategies have been employed to try and mitigate these.
“This includes moving teaching online, pen and paper distance education, catch-up programmes, weekend school lessons. Some more successful than others,” IEB chief executive officer Anne Oberholzer said.
Oberholzer said that while this class had seen how previous Grade 12 classes managed to adapt to a new reality, they missed out the most in their Grade 10 and Grade 11 years, which were fundamentally important to success in Grade 12 performance.
“The social and emotional impact of the pandemic on learners cannot be overlooked, the impact of lockdown, the absence of normal social interaction with friends and engagement in the social activities of teenagers should not be underestimated.
“The dedication of the teaching community to implement various strategies to support their classes during this black swan event is exemplary. “The IEB congratulates the candidates, their teachers and parents for a job extraordinarily well done,” said Oberholzer.
The Department of Basic Education will on Thursday release the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination results for the Class of 2022 in a ceremony to be held at the Mosaik Church in Fairland, Johannesburg.
As per tradition, the Minister Angie Motsheka, will also host the learners and parents for a Congratulatory breakfast on the morning of Thursday while the Director General, Mathanzima Mweli, will deliver a technical briefing to unpack the NSC results in greater detail on the same afternoon.
“The Matric Class of 2022 has borne the brunt of COVID-19 in their critical years of Grade 10 and Grade 11. This class is the largest full-time cohort of candidates that sat for the National Senior Certificate Examinations.
“The Department of Basic Education reminds candidates to collect their results at the centre where they wrote their examinations, “the Department of Basic Education said.
Results are available from the 20th of January.