Pretoria - Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced that most provinces in the country have achieved improved matric pass rates.
Only three out of the nine provinces achieved lower matric pass rates, namely the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape.
The Eastern Cape achieved the lowest pass rate with 58.1% down from 58.3% in 2010. The Northern Cape achieved a 68.8% pass rate, down from 72.3% achieved in 2010. KwaZulu-Natal achieved 68.1%, down from 70.7% in 2010, showing a decline of 2.6%.
The Western Cape, Gauteng, North West, Free State, Mpumalanga and Limpopo all achieved improved pass rates.
The Western Cape registered the highest pass rate with 82.9% up from 76.8% in 2009, an improvement of 6.1%.
Gauteng achieved an 81.1% pass rate, up from 78.6% in 2010, an improvement of 2.5%.
The North West achieved 77.8%, up from 75.7%, and improvement of 2.1%.
The Free State achieved 75.7% up from 70.7%, an improvement of 5.0%.
Mpumalanga reached 64.8%, up from 56.8%, representing the largest improvement by a province of 8%.
Limpopo achieved 63.9%, up from 57.9% and an improvement of 6.0%.
Regarding district performance, the minister announced that of the 81 districts in the country, 66 were performing at 60% and above passes, 10 were performing between 50% and 59% and five were below 49%.
The five poorest performing districts were all in the Eastern Cape, namely Butterworth, Fort Beaufort, Libode, Mount Frere and Sterkspruit. Of the other 10 poorly performing districts, six were in the Eastern Cape and one was in KwaZulu-Natal.
