With the release of the 2021 matric examination results on Friday 21 January, the weekend saw a time of celebration and reflection on another difficult academic year.
The Western Cape has again maintained a pole position in the overall provincial results, with an 81,2% overall pass rate, as announced by national Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
Provincial minister Debbie Schäfer says this is a remarkable achievement.
“Considering that this was achieved after two years of a global pandemic makes it even more remarkable. The Class of 2021 has had a tough two years. Their Grade 11 year in 2020 was marred by school closures, with their grade going back to class later than many others. However, their matric year has been very stable, with more time in class than in other matric years,” she says in a statement.
“What makes our performance even more impressive is that we had 6 076 extra candidates writing this year, which makes it more difficult to increase the percentage.”
Overall, the province had the highest yet percentage of Bachelor’s Passes at 45,3%, which is also the highest in the country.
Mathematics and Science pass rates increased by 1,6% and 2,2%, respectively, with a 72,4% pass rate for Mathematics and 77,1% for Science.
Speaking to People’s Post about their results, matriculants had mixed emotions.
Zulfah Williams says: “I am proud of myself for completing my schooling, but I feel I could have done better.”
She adds that the pandemic has hurt her progress, making it difficult to be entirely happy.
“I hope to study this year to become a nurse and I look forward to this next chapter,” she says.
Her message to the class of 2022 is: “Do not waste time during this year. It goes by very quickly. Stay focused and do your best.”
Alessio Marcus, named Western Cape learner of the year at the National Teaching Awards, also completed his matric in 2021.
“I am extremely happy with my results. I passed with a Bachelor’s Pass, a distinction, and appeared in the top 5 of my school,” he says. “The challenges we faced as matriculants were quite vast. We entered into the year 2021 not knowing what to expect, purely because Covid-19 was still raging. We were still in recovery mode from the year 2020 which resulted in us losing out on academic time which meant we had to bear the brunt of this in our matric year. There were also many matriculants who went through psychological issues such as depression, anxiety and so on which was inevitable as a result of the stress we were under.”
Marcus has received a few work offers and will be weighing up his options, while studying for a BA in Public Administration through UNISA.
“My message to the class of 2022 is to stay driven; just know you got this. It will not be easy but it will indeed be worth it in the end. Do not wait for the middle of the year to give it your all, start working from the get-go. You did not come this far, to come this far!”
Another matriculant, Zoe Jacobs, says:
“I am definitely proud of myself because I worked really hard, but I know I could have done even better,” she says.
Jacobs suffered from anxiety around her school work potentially not being good enough, travelling to school and long hours and staying late for classes. These were some of the challenges she faced along with the pandemic aftermath.
“Also just having all the pressure put on you just because you are matric (was challenging). So many people expect much more from you,” she says.
She plans to study education and psychology this year. “I would like to tell the matric class of 2022 that they shouldn’t give up. No matter how difficult or frustrating it gets, keep pushing. Also start working every day. It will make it so much easier when it comes to the exams. And the last thing is to keep praying because we can’t do anything without the Man above,” she says.
Matriculant Andre Abrahams says he enjoyed his matric year. “There were many challenges and, yes, the results could be better, but I did well enough to continue with my next goal,” he says.
