Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is expected to announce the 2017 National Senior Certificate (NSC) matric results at the SABC’s Auckland Park offices on Thursday afternoon.

A “technical briefing” is scheduled to start at 16:00, when the processes surrounding the examinations is expected to be discussed.

The official release of the matric results is scheduled to start at 18:00.

A reported 789 289 pupils wrote the examinations – 37 828 less than the number who wrote in 2016.

In 2016, 72.5% passed the NSC examination – a 1.8 percentage point increase from 2015’s 70.7% pass rate.

The number of progressed pupils – pupils who advanced to matric after failing a grade 11 twice – is expected to once again make a dramatic impact on the pass rate.

In 2016, more than 100 000 of the roughly 800 000 matriculants were progressed pupils.

Without the progressed pupils, the 2016 pass rate was 76.2% compared 74% in 2015.

Pupils are “progressed” to “ensure learners don’t get frustrated and drop out,” the education department’s Dr Rufus Poliah previously said.

However, pupils are still required to pass the NSC examinations to pass.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) said it would attend the announcement ceremony and congratulated matriculants on their hard work over the past year.

“It is imperative to know whether there has been any progress made in the performance of our schooling system at the senior level, especially given that 41% of the learners enrolled in Grade 10 in 2015 did not enrol for matric in 2017,” DA education spokesperson Nomsa Marchesi said in a statement.

“The DA is committed to the provision of quality basic education and will continue the fight to ensure that all our children have access to it.”

[Source: News24]