Monday, 13 January 2025

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) congratulates the Class of 2024 for their remarkable performance in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations. These learners began their high school journey at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—a period marked by uncertainty, disrupted learning, and socioeconomic hardship. Despite these challenges, they have demonstrated extraordinary resilience, with the matric pass rate increasing from 82.9% in 2023 to 87.3% in 2024, the highest in South Africa’s recent history.

We commend the 47.8% of learners who achieved bachelor passes, a 6.9% improvement from 2023 and a doubling since 2014. It is especially significant that 67% of bachelor passes came from quintile 1–3 schools in poorer communities. KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest number of bachelor passes, followed by Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. Girl learners, despite enduring the harshest conditions, continue to excel academically, setting an inspiring example.

KwaZulu-Natal also led in distinctions, contributing significantly to the 319,000 distinctions achieved nationwide, with every province showing an increase in this regard. The Free State remains the top-performing province with a pass rate of 91%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 89.5%, Gauteng at 88.4%, North West at 87.5%, the Western Cape at 86.6%, Limpopo at 85.1%, Mpumalanga at 84.9%, the Eastern Cape at 84.9%, and the Northern Cape at 84.2%. The Northern Cape, with an improvement from 81% to 84.2%, is the most improved province, while no-fee schools achieved an impressive pass rate of over 85%.

However, these achievements are overshadowed by the systemic failures of the ANC-DA led government to provide a conducive learning environment. The staggering dropout rate remains a national crisis: of the 1.2 million learners who began Grade 1 in 2013, only 732,448 sat for the matric exams in 2024. This means that nearly 40% of learners, approximately, did not complete their schooling, a tragedy that disproportionately affects girl learners. Many were forced out of school due to statutory rape leading to pregnancy, while others left to care for siblings in child-headed households.

It is not lost on us that learners in South Africa face the most dire of conditions to make it through schooling. Many struggle to travel safely to school having to walk long distances and cross unsafe rivers, they attend schools which have been severely abandoned by the government and are made of dilapidated mud huts with no proper ablutions. Even more children are having to attend classes on empty stomachs as the promised school nutrition programs neither provide adequate food or nutrition due to the self-serving politicians that have run this country for the last thirty years. Despite the disdain our leaders have shown to the youngest and most vulnerable of this country, they continue to fight for themselves and against all odds, as is reflected in these results.

The declining participation in physical sciences and the lack of improvement in results are also major concerns for South Africa’s future. A robust foundation in these subjects is essential for global competitiveness and participation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The EFF reaffirms its commitment to addressing these challenges through our #UmntanaEskolweni campaign, which seeks to ensure all learners are enrolled and retained at all levels of basic education, as we provide oversight, adopt schools and fight for improved learning environments and resources for South Africa’s children.

We encourage all matriculants who passed to pursue tertiary education and seek assistance from the EFF Students’ Command (EFFSC) at all institutions of higher learning as we continue to intensify our #SizofundaNgenkani campaign. Your education is a powerful tool in the fight for economic freedom in our lifetime.

To those who did not pass, we remind you that failure is not the end. Rewrite matric, improve your results, and we encourage your communities and families to stand by you in this process. The EFF will continue to fight for an equitable education system that supports all learners and eliminates the barriers to success.

Congratulations class of 2024!

ISSUED BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Leigh-Ann Mathys (National Spokesperson) 082 304 7572

Thato Lebyane (Media Enquiries) 078 304 7572