summary: Joe Slovo High, a no-fee school in Khayelitsha, achieved a remarkable 99.3% matric pass rate in 2024, up 12.1 percentage points from 2023, and doubled its bachelor’s pass rate to 56.2%. The school secured 41 subject distinctions, including impressive gains in mathematics (96% pass rate) and physical science (85.2%). Despite challenges like limited lab facilities for over 1,300 learners, dedicated educators, parental support, and disciplined learners drove success. Western Cape education MEC David Maynier praised the achievements but warned of potential setbacks in 2025 due to education budget cuts, which have led to larger class sizes and reduced teacher posts – read more below
by Mzi Velapi – this post was first published by Elitsha
Joe Slovo High, a quintile 2 no-fee school in Khayelitsha achieved a remarkable pass rate of 99.3%, an increase of 12.1 percentage points from 2023. Announcing the results to the teachers, learners and parents, Western Cape education MEC David Maynier said that the school has doubled its bachelors pass rate and achieved 41 subject distinctions.
“Joe Slovo’s matric pass rate increased from 87.2% in 2023 to an incredible 99.3% – an increase of 12.1 percentage points and their highest pass rate since the National Senior Certificate was introduced in 2008. More importantly, their bachelors pass rate more than doubled, from 25.1% in 2023 to 56.2% in 2024!”
Joe Slovo Secondary’s #ClassOf2024 achieved a total of 41 subject distinctions, with 6 distinctions for mathematics (including 2 candidates with over 90%) and 3 distinctions for physical science. Perhaps their most impressive achievement is the improvement in the maths pass rate: from 56.2% in 2023 to 96.0%. And in physical science, the pass rate increased to 85.2%, from 56.2% in 2023. “These subjects are critical indicators of quality passes,” Maynier said.
Physical science teacher at the school, Silence Mapatwana said the school has only one fully equipped and functioning laboratory which cannot cater to the needs of all grades. “The number of learners that we have here and are exposed to the subject are more than 1,300 and when you have one lab, it does not assist. It does cater for grade 12s but those who are doing lower grades do suffer,” he said.
Khayalethu Moyo, a grade 12 mathematics teacher at the school told Elitsha that the recipe to their success involved planning, discipline and hard work, leading to a healthy classroom environment. “The learners were here from Monday to Sunday and we got a lot of support from the parents. The learners who have achieved distinctions now, I started with them in grade 10 during Covid pandemic. I knew their strengths and weaknesses,” he said.
The theme of hard work was echoed by the school principal, Sityhilelo Ntamo who said that the school had been battling to produce good matric results for years. “Through the dedication and resilience of our educators we have managed to take the school from the rock bottom of the table to a better position. In 2009, just 50.5% of our Khayelitsha candidates passed matric, and only 9.3% achieved a bachelors pass. Through many years of hard work by school staff and learners, and support from the Metro East Education District, these schools have improved in leaps and bounds. In 2024, 87.6% of the candidates at schools in Khayelitsha passed their matric, with a bachelors pass rate of 47.8%,” he said.
Schools in the Metro East District have done well and the district came second in the province. According to the district director, Landeka Diamond, 54% of the 61 schools in the district have achieved above a 90% pass rate.
Announcing the class of 2024 matric results last night, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said more than 615,000 learners passed the exam, which is more than at any other time in the country’s history. South Africa’s national pass rate for the 2024 national senior certificate exam is 87.3%, an increase of 4.4% from 82.9% in 2023.
But the MEC predicts a decline for 2025
Speaking to Elitsha on the sidelines of the celebration of Joe Slovo High School’s achievements, MEC David Maynier admitted that the current budget cuts in education are expected to affect the matric results of this year as the ratio of teacher per learner has increased. He said the austerity measures in education in the province has led to the cutting of 2,400 teachers posts which would increase the class size from 34 to 37 learners per educator.
