The Eastern Cape recorded a matric pass rate of 76.5% in 2019 an improvement of 5.9% on 2018.
This was announced on Tuesday night by Basic Education Minister, who said the overall matric pass rate was 81.3%.
She said the Free State was the best performing province with a matric pass rate of 88.4% followed by Gauteng at 87.2% and North West Province rounding off the top three at 86.8%
The Western Cape recorded a pass rate of 82.3%, KwaZulu Natal 81.3%, and Mpumalanga at 80.3%
Limpopo was the worst-performing province at 73.2%
Democratic Alliance MPL, Yusuf Cassim, congratulated all the Eastern Cape Grade 12 learners who passed “and contributed to a massive increase in the province’s pass rate”.
However, he said the DA was still very concerned about the low learner-retention rate and high drop-out rates in the Eastern Cape.
Cassim said this number is set to grow as the Department of Basic Education “phases out the Multiple Examination Opportunity (MEO) to learners which artificially inflates the matric pass rate.”
