Independent Examinations Board (IEB) matriculation candidates have achieved a 98.38 percent pass rate for 2014, according to results released on Wednesday.
This was comparable to last year’s 98.56 percent, the IEB said in a statement.
“All candidates that passed achieved a pass that is good enough to enter tertiary study at one of the three levels.”
A total of 85.45 percent of candidates qualified to study towards degrees, while 11.56 percent were suitable for diploma study.
Just over one percent of students achieved entry for study at the higher certificate level.
IEB pupils attained pass rates of nearly 89 percent for mathematics and physical science.
“The percentage of learners scoring 40 percent and above in mathematics is 88.6 percent and the percentage scoring 40 percent and above in physical sciences is 88.5 percent.”
Forty percent is considered a pass.
A total of 9976 full-time and 475 part-time pupils from across the country, as well as from Namibia, Mozambique, and Swaziland, wrote the national senior certificate examinations in November.
The IEB said this was an increase of 396 compared to the 2013 cohort, a result of seven new schools joining the system and a number of already IEB-affiliated schools having increased enrolments.
The IEB offers advanced programme (AP) subjects — considered the equivalent of UK A-Levels — for mathematics, English and Afrikaans.
In AP mathematics, an 85.2 percent pass rate was achieved by the 2315 candidates. In AP English, 96.8 percent of the 610 candidates passed and AP Afrikaans had a full house of passes.
The IEB said candidates for the Combined Abitur-NSC qualification, offered by the German Schools in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria, wrote five of its subjects — along with seven others assessed by German education authorities.
All 53 of these candidates passed with entry to degree study.
“Education is so much more than the achievement of good results in the NSC examinations,” IEB CEO Anne Oberholzer said in a statement.
“The key role of education is to provide young people with the capabilities… that make them rounded citizens who engage constructively and meaningfully with their world.”
The IEB held National Adult Education examinations in November. Over half of these candidates passed their assessments.
“Although the pass percentage of 55 percent is relatively low, one of the most heartening parts of our work is to witness the happiness of people when they achieve a pass in these examinations,” she said.
