Attention editors: Please see English audio by MPP Deidré Baartman attached.
The DA in the Western Cape is immensely proud of the Western Cape’s top students of 2023, who were honoured by Minister David Maynier and Premier Alan Winde yesterday. We salute and acknowledge the hard work and perseverance of our educators, our support and administrative staff, parents, and most importantly of all, our students.
2023 saw the Western Cape once again improve its matric pass rate, and achieve its highest ever number of bachelors passes. These achievements are especially impressive given the fact that taxi violence and wildcat strikes disrupted education in many parts of the province this year, further compounding learning losses suffered under Covid. Nevertheless, our 2023 matric candidates worked hard to deliver a sterling set of results. As Minister Maynier noted in his address at the event, the Western Cape saw pass rates of 75.4% in Physical Science, and 82.2% in Mathematics – the highest in the country.
The Western Cape also produced the highest ranked public school candidate in the country – Mellissa Müller of Rhenish Girls’ High School. This is the sixth time this has been the case in the last seven years. In addition to Müller, five other Western Cape learners were honoured at the national NSC awards in Gauteng this year. This number included Samkelo Gumada of Athlone School for the Blind, who ranked as the country’s top special-needs candidate.
Several of the Western Cape’s most-improved schools were also honoured at yesterday’s event. For example, Joe Slovo Secondary School was recognised not only as the most improved technical high school, but also as the most-improved public school overall. This is a sterling achievement of which the management, students and educators of Joe Slovo Secondary High School Should be proud.
DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Education Deidré Baartman says: “We are incredibly proud of all of the top achieving schools and students recognised yesterday. Academic excellence is a cornerstone of economic revival, and I am fully confident that these students – our best and our brightest – will be the ones to lead us into a brighter future. To the entire class of 2023, and especially our top achievers: congratulations!”