At the release of the matric results held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre on Tuesday, the premier of KwaZulu-Natal Thamsanqa Ntuli said he is pleased that the overall performance of the KZN matric class of 2024 is 89.5%.

"This represents an improvement of 3.1% on last year's performance of 86.4%. With this performance, KZN this year ranks second behind the Free State," said Ntuli.

He went on to say that this demonstrates how the crucial basis of basic education in the province is being built brick by brick, district by district, school by school, and learner by learner.

"KwaZulu-Natal started the 2024 academic year encouraged by the ground-breaking results of the class of 2023 which obtained an impressive 86% and made us the second-best performing province in the country.

"Based on last year's performance, we defined the objective for 2024 as being to improve from 86% to 90%, and to move in the direction of our ultimate long-term goal, which is to achieve 100%."

In KZN, 1,761 schools contributed to the 2024 NSC. A total of 161,962 applicants took the National Senior Exam.

In terms of certificates, 144,990 passed, accounting for 89.5% of those who wrote.

KZN had the most applicants and the highest number of bachelor's passes countrywide, with 84,000.

In 2023, 45.7% of learners in the province obtained a bachelor's degree; by 2024, 52.2% had done so. The percentage of diploma passes declined from 27.7% in 2023 to 26.4% in 2024, indicating qualitative improvement.

Ntuli also added that every district showed improvement. Another area that saw improvement was gender.

"89.4% of the females and 89.6% males passed in 2024. This represents an improvement in gender parity, and an advance in the fight for gender equity," Ntuli said.

Ntuli also pointed out that in 2023, there were 18 schools that performed below 40%. However, in 2024, that number has decreased to only 10.

For those who did not pass matric, the premier extended a message of hope. "This is not the end of the world. The Department runs the Second Chances Programme which provides an opportunity for you to rewrite.

"One life lesson is never to give up. Always keep trying. As they say, success is measured not by the number of times you fall, but by the number of times you rise and face the journey again."

He reiterated that the pupils made him proud by demonstrating exceptional discipline, endurance, and dedication to greatness. "You are a shining example of what is possible when you believe, and when you put shoulder to the wheel. You are our future in the making," said Ntuli.

IOL