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The DA in Limpopo wishes to congratulate the learners who sat for the 2023 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations and improved the provincial pass rate to 79.54 %, a significant increase from 72.1% % in the previous year and 66.7% in 2021. We wish these learners great success in their futures. The province also managed to register 34 018 Bachelor passes (36.4%) 24 481 Diploma passes (26.2%) and 15894 (17%) Higher certificate passes.

Although these results are a significant improvement on consecutive years of shambolic results that saw the province achieve the lowest matric pass rate, the failure to retain learners in our education system is still a major concern.

Of the 147 934 learners that enrolled for grade 10 in 2021 only 93 533 wrote the 2023 NSC exams , this means that 54 401 learners (36.8%)  dropped out between grade 10 and matric. Only 74 400 learners passed the 2023 NSC exams out of the cohort of 147 934 learners that enrolled for grade 10 in 2021, presenting a real pass rate of 50.3%.

Allowing so many learners to drop out will only exacerbate the youth unemployment and poverty crisis Limpopo is already facing. Learners will be deprived of opportunities such as higher education and employment that may improve their lives and that of their families.

The poor performance of progressed learners continues to be a cause for concern for the province with only 4261 candidates (42.2%) passing out of the 10 092 that wrote the NSC exams. The province also had 31 schools that failed to reach a 40% pass rate.

Limpopo has continued to miss the 80% Matric pass rate target set by Premier Chupu Mathabatha but must be commended for the 34 018 bachelor passes that are an increase on the 32 878 in 2022 and 28 072 in 2021.

Despite the upturn in the province’s results Limpopo’s Education system still faces historical challenges such as poor school infrastructure, inappropriate sanitation, overcrowding, classroom shortages, insufficient scholar transport, underqualified teachers, mismanaged school nutrition programme and insufficient support to learners.

MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya must make efforts to ensure they implement strategies to retain learners, implement the intervention plan adopted at the Education Indaba, offer more support to progressed learners to better prepare them for the exams, increase support for all learners in the gateway subjects, address other challenges that contribute to poor exam performance such as scholar transport, the school nutrition programme and poor infrastructure.

We would like to congratulate the Limpopo matriculants who qualified for entry into tertiary education, and we would also like to urge the matriculants who did not obtain the required results to try again. We are committed to ensuring that every learner in Limpopo has the opportunity for a bright and successful future.

Issued by Lindy Wilson MPL - DA Limpopo Provincial Leader