It's official, Independent Examinations Board (IEB) learners' 2020 National Senior Certificate results have been released.
IEB has said that 2020's pass rate is lower than last year but there doesn't seem to be too big of a difference.
The pass rates are as follows:
- 88.42% (compared to 89.51% in 2019) of the cohort achieved entry to degree study.
- 8.14% (compared to 7.91% in 2019) qualified for entry to diploma study.
- 1.51% (compared to 1.4% in 2019) achieved entry for study at the Higher Certificate level.
Anne Oberholzer, CEO of the Independent Examinations Board, said:
The excellent performance of the Class of 2020 under very difficult circumstances, underscores the importance of the years of good, solid teaching and learning prior to the Grade 12 year. These achievements are proof that the Grade 12 year on its own does not provide the understanding, perseverance and resilience needed to achieve excellent results in the matric year – but that is the culmination of work and learning over 12 or 13 years of quality schooling
For the class of 2020, 12 024 candidates writing were full-time and 1139 were part-time candidates.
There were 233 examination centres with 261 venues across Southern Africa wrote the IEB Matric exams in October and November 2020.
In 2019 there were 11 818 full-time candidates and 779 part-time candidates showing an increase in 2020.
One has to also acknowledge that due to the 2020 pandemic, there were many learners who withdrew from the year and those who postponed the completion of Grade 12 until this year.
Some learners chose to write some subjects during the designated exam period and left others for this year.
It is interesting to note that the hard lockdown had differing impacts across schools within the IEB. Some schools were able to make a smooth transition to online teaching and learning as they had the resources available and in fact, had already been using them in the normal course of events. Their teachers were experienced in this mode of delivery, as were their learners who had access to devices and stable internet connectivity.
Some schools were however not able to shift to and online teaching and learning programme but this didn't stop the ball from rolling. Teachers then employed traditional distance education strategies such as preparing weekly learning programmes for learners using textbook references and notes together with prepared exercises and tasks and sending it using email or physical delivery.
Learners then had their work brought back to the schools and if they needed further assistance, they would get it.
"The initiative of schools and teachers to continue with teaching and learning during this time is a testimony to their professionalism and the commitment of teachers and learners, as well as the support of parents to pivot and adapt to our changed circumstances," said Oberholzer.
Some learners also chose to switch to distance and online education providers or homeschooling.
