IEB achieves 98.30% pass

The IEB exams results show that the class of 2015 got a 98.30 percent pass rate, slightly down from last year.

Cape Town - The Independent Examinations Board (IEB) exams results released at midnight show that the class of 2015 got a 98.30 percent pass rate, slightly down from last year’s 98.38 percent.

All candidates that passed achieved a pass that is good enough to enter tertiary study at one of the three levels. Over 85 percent of the cohort achieved entry to study for a degree.

10 212 full time and 563 part time candidates from 200 schools across Southern Africa wrote the exams, of which over 600 candidates were from the Western Cape.

Countrywide the percentage of pupils scoring 40 percent and above in Physical Sciences is 86 percent and the percentage scoring 40 percent and above in Mathematics is 88.30 percent.

In the Western Cape ten matrics achieved within the top five percent in five or more subjects.

Manu Huyssen of Somerset College achieved nine distinctions. Huyssen said while the completion of matric was exciting, she had a sense of disbelief that her high school career had concluded.

“(I am) a bit nervous too, going into a future without the safety bubble of school,” she said.

She thanked her family and friends for their support during the stressful exam period.

“Thank you, Somerset College matrics (and) my school teachers, for making me work while keeping a watchful eye on my well-being,” she said.

IEB chief executive, Anne Oberholzer said: “The IEB is proud of the achievements of the Class of 2015. Learners have again shown that with a commitment to hard work over their 12 years of schooling and supported by a dedicated cohort of teachers and parents, they have achieved the first major milestone in their learning careers.”

She said educating young people meant more than ensuring good results in the exams.

“It means providing young people with the power to think for themselves, to come to well-thought through opinions that can be defended as moral, rational and socially constructive. In the context of South Africa, in all that we have achieved and in the many challenges ahead and disparities that still exist in our country, this cannot be emphasised enough for our young people,” Oberholzer said.

lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za

@lisa_isaacs

Cape Times