Cape Town -- Almost 40% of all 2022 matric students qualified for admission to study towards a bachelor’s degree, a staggering improvement of 8.9% from 2021.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced it on Thursday evening together with last year’s 80.1% overall pass rate.
“The number of candidates qualifying for admission to bachelor studies at universities, is 278 814,” said Motshekga.
"By the way, the 2022 bachelor passes in numbers, are the highest attained in the entire history of the National Senior Certificate Examinations, but the second highest to that attained in 2021, when expressed as a percentage,“ she said.
KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng contributed the most bachelor passes, with 69 849 – an increase of 12.9% from 2021; and 58 119 – an increase of 4.1% from 2021, respectively.
“This is a combined bachelor achievement of 127 968; an improvement of 8.7% from 2021, and 45.9% contribution towards the overall bachelor passes nationally,” said Motshekga.
The number of candidates who passed with a diploma is 193 357 – an improvement of 8.9% from 2021.
The number of candidates who passed with higher certificates is 108 159 – an improvement of 4.1% from 2021; and represents 14.9% of the total number of candidates who wrote the 2022 NSC combined examinations.
Leader of Build One South Africa (BOSA), Mmusi Maimane said he was perturbed over the fact that more than half of last year’s matrics didn’t meet the standards to study at a university.
“The reality is that many of these kids will be unemployed,” said Maimane, adding that “there really is nothing for Angie to brag about”.
IOL