The Democratic Alliance (DA) congratulates all of Mpumalanga’s successful matriculants for their remarkable performance in the 2023 academic year – despite facing challenges like the on-going Eskom loadshedding, the province’s matric class of 2023 got an OFFICIAL overall pass rate of 76.95%, a slight 0.2% increase from 76.8% in the previous year.
We also wish to thank all the teachers that went the extra mile to ensure that learners had the best possible preparation for their examinations and the parents for their support and encouragement.
While the DA welcomes the slight 0.2% pass rate increase, we are concerned about the number of learners who are dropping out from school and end up not writing the matric final exams. For example, in 2020, 94 077 learners registered for Grade 10 in Mpumalanga schools, but only 67 367 of those wrote the 2022 Matric final exams. What happened to the other 26 710?? It is obvious that these learners dropped out of school for whatever reasons. This is a 28.4% dropout rate. This is concerning and it must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
For the 2022 school year, 71 369 learners registered for matric but only 67 367 wrote the final matric exam. Where are the other 4002 learners??
In the 2023 school year, 67 902 learners registered to write matric in Mpumalanga, but 65 534 wrote. What happened to the 2 535 learners who registered but did not write?
The DA is also concerned that out of the 92 596 learners who registered for Grade 10 in 2021, only 65 534 learners wrote the 2023 matric exams. What happened to the other 27 062. If you take into consideration the above stats, the real Mpumalanga 2023 matric pass rate is 54.5% pass rate, not the 76.95% pass rate.
With that being said, the DA urges the Mpumalanga Department of Education to focus on improving learner retention and ensure that learners are supported from the time they start school to when they complete Grade 12. Together with abolishing rotational timetables, the department should find a way of always tracking the learners who drop out from school.
The DA would like to congratulate the 33.3% Mpumalanga matriculants who qualified for entry to tertiary education: and we would also like to urge the matriculants who did not obtain the required results not to despair, but must instead put more effort in trying again.
We would also like to congratulate the 24 schools who achieved 100% pass rate out of the 571 schools that registered to write the 2022 matric exams. The DA would also like to congratulate the 21 819 learners who have qualified to enroll for bachelors degrees.