Pretoria - The ANC has congratulated the matric class of 2010 for surpassing expectations and doing the nation proud by achieving a 67.8 percent pass rate.
"We also ... would like to congratulate [Basic Education] Minister Angie Motshega and her team for work well done! We are equally impressed by all our provincial education departments, who have improved their results in the year 2010," said South Africa's ruling party on Thursday.
Of those who have passed, 126 371 learners were able to get university exemption. This year's results are an improvement of 7.2 percent from 2009's 60.6 percent.
The ANC thanked all role players for the contribution they have made in the improvement of matrics' performance.
"We believe ... that this improvement ... came as a result of society's involvement in education. We ... call on all of society, including parents, educators, students and education administrators to be fully involved in the education system."
The ANC Youth League also joined the chorus, congratulating all the learners who passed the 2010 National Senior Certificate examinations.
"We also congratulate the many hardworking teachers, parents, guardians, school principals, and Department of Education officials at all levels for putting an additional effort amidst challenges in 2010," said the league in a statement.
"We applaud provincial, regional and branch structures of the ANCYL for coordinating additional classes and lessons for particularly Grade 12 learners during public servants strike and towards examinations. These efforts will not go unnoticed and the 67 percent pass rate is testimony that all these efforts were not futile."
The youth league also called on learners who passed to make sure they enrolled with credible and accredited institutions of higher learning, and to make use of government bursaries and loan schemes to make further studies possible.
It urged the youth not to be discouraged, and take heart in the fact that there were many job opportunities that required a skilled and trained workforce.
The Democratic Alliance's shadow minister for basic education, Wilmot James, described the 67.8 percent pass rate as fabulous.
"It is a major improvement from the previous year. It is almost too good to be true and is certainly a basis to congratulate the students who managed to get through the exams in some challenging circumstances," he said.
However, James cautioned against focusing on percentages alone, saying the real measure had to do with the quality of pupils that emerged from the education system.
The quality of the mathematics and science pass rates was particularly worrying, he noted.
James said the quality of passes in subjects beyond mathematics and science also had to be examined.
"There needs to be a focus on ways to improve the quality of the education system as a whole to ensure that learners of the highest quality pass through the system," he added.
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) also welcomed the good matric results displayed by the class of 2010.
"Although we would like to see even higher pass rates, we are grateful for the improvements over previous year's results," it said.
According to the UDM, the results are impressive when seen in the context of the interruptions in the school year caused by the World Cup and the subsequent teachers' strike.
