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IEB matric class of 2022 maintains its 98% and above pass rate
'It is fair to say it is the 2022 cohort of learners who were hardest hit by the impact of the pandemic when it broke in 2020 in their grade 10 year.'
One of the top performing Matrics, Hannah Hill from Saheti School, poses for a photograph at her home in Johannesburg, 17 January 2023, with some of her academic trophies behind her. Picture: Michel Bega/The Citizen
The Independent Examinations Board (IEB) matric class of 2022 has maintained its 98% and above pass rate of 98.42%, slightly higher than the class of 2021’s 98.39% pass rate.
The lowest was in 2020 with 98.07% and the highest in 2018 with 98.92%.
According to the IEB, at least 89.32% of the cohort achieved entry to degree study, compared to 89.2% in 2021, while 7.52% qualified for entry to diploma study, and 1.57% at the Higher Certificate level.
Life balance more important
Saheti’s top candidate, Hannah Hill, achieved the schools highest average (95%) and eleven distinctions, of which ten were 90% and higher.
Hill said she while hard work paid off, having a balance in life was more important.
“You can’t ignore school, or your social life and even family because it all helps to reenergise you to push yourself even harder and motivate you,” Hill said.
Although she was hoping for at least ten distinctions, Hill was named an Outstanding Achiever by the IEB, ranking within the top 5% of candidates nationally in six or more subjects.
She was also ranked within the top 1% nationally in Afrikaans (98%), English (99%), Information Technology, Life Orientation, Physical Sciences and Further Studies: English, Mathematics Elective (Statistics), Mathematics Standard (Calculus & Algebra).
“My family has always let me have my space, they adjusted their lives around my schedule, and if I’m studying they wouldn’t try to convince me to go out, but always adapted and created an environment comfortable to study, which really helped me.”
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Hill said although she did not have it all figured out yet, she had applied to the University of Cape Town and Wits for medicine, where she would later choose between neurosurgery or research and genetics.
“It’s not pressing to know your career path by the time you get to matric, you just have to work hard so even if your interests change by the time you apply you still have a variety of options,” she added.
They made it despite Covid
The IEB said the matric class of 2022 consisted of 12 580 full-time and 945 part-time candidates from 232 examination centres writing in 262 venues between October and November across southern Africa.
“The performance of the 2022 cohort of students has been outstanding,” IEB CEO Anne Oberholzer said.
“There is enough credible research on the impact of Covid on the educational aspects of children to provide insight into where we are at, in coming out of the pandemic almost three years later.
“It is fair to say it is the 2022 cohort of learners who were hardest hit by the impact of the pandemic when it broke in 2020 in their grade 10 year.
Oberholzer congratulated the class of 2022 along with their teachers and parents “for a job extraordinarily well done”.
“While the class of 2022 has seen how previous Grade 12 classes of 2020 and 2021 managed to adapt to a new reality, this was the class which missed out the most in their Grade 10 and Grade 11 years which are fundamentally important to success in their grade 12 performance,” she noted.
“They have had to work hard to maintain their drive and perseverance to succeed and, in many respects, dig deep to play catch up in terms of lost time and experiences.”
Matric top achievers
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Other top achievers were Saheti’s Ivan Chen who had the second highest average (90%) with ten distinctions.
St Stithians Girls’ College Sarah Varghese achieved eight distinctions with a 91.7% average and Katherine Hollingworth cracked a 93.1% average with eight distinctions.
Varghese hopes to study actuarial sciences or medicine at Wits, with the hopes of becoming an actuarial scientist or specialist doctor. Outside the classroom, she achieved a distinction in the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) Advanced Foundation ballet exam and is currently pursuing the RAD Advanced 1 ballet syllabus.
Charlotte Snyckers from Redhill School achieved 9 distinctions while at Dainfern College, Makanaka Nyengerai completed her Cambridge Assessment International Education A levels with an average of 85.25% across four subjects.
ALSO READ: Here’s how your matric marks are calculated and how much you need to pass
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