Page 320 - Provincial Treasury Estimates.pdf

Department: Education

2. Review of the current financial year (2022/23)

Overall, the department has been inundated by budgetary pressures which had an impact on the

department’s ability to carry out some of its planned activities, coupled with delivery challenges
experienced in different facades of its operational spectrum. Despite this, the notable Improvements in

2022, particularly on exam outcomes, should be seen in the context of a system wide Education System
Transformation Plan of the department, whose strategic thrust is to maximise opportunities of learners
achieving a good pass in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations while improving performance

in the whole system.

The following significant inroads were made in key educational priorities as measured against the planned
activities for the period under question:

Curriculumn, Performance and Assesment - Grade 12 class of 2022, was the 9th cohort to sit for the

National Senior Certificate examination based on Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS)
curriculum, with a significant increase in the number of full-time enrolments from 95 787 in 2021 to 101
588 in 2022. There is a gradual improvement in the quality of the School Based Assessment submitted to

Umalusi for resulting, and a persistent emphasis on formative School Based Assessment over the last four
years has paid off. All said and done, COVID-19 pandemic posed an unprecedented challenge to the

education sector as a whole, the 2022 Grade 12 class was not spared of the unavoidable teaching, learning
and assessment disruptions in their Grades 10 and 11. However;
x The 2022 pass rate stood at 77.3 per cent pass percentage, which is 4.3 per cent improvement from

73 per cent pass from the class of 2021. Given the high enrolments in the class of 2022, the total
number of children that passed the National Senior Certificate stands at 73 386, making it 6 616 more
learners passing in 2022 compared to 2021, and the Bachelor passes increased by 2.5 per cent from

34.3 per cent in 2021 to 36.8 per cent in 2022.
x Subject performance – Similarly, the department has improved across spectrum, in that of the 53

subjects that were written, 23 subjects have shown an upward trajectory, whilst 21 subjects dropped
by low margins, and 9 remained unchanged from the past. High enrolment subjects, with no less than
10 000 learners for the specific subject, exhibited commendable improvements, such as Accounting

improving from 76.4 per cent to 76.9 per cent; Economics from 73.4 per cent to 78.6 per cent;
Geography from 73.8 per cent to 77.8 per cent; Life Sciences improved from 70.8 per cent to 72.2 per
cent; Physical Science from 62,3% to 70.5 per cent; and Mathematics Literacy improving from 72.3

per cent to 83.1 percent.
x Regional Performance - with high enrolments and bigger number of centres automatically became

major game-changers, and the top four worth mentioning are Buffalo City region, Nelson Mandela,
OR Tambo Inland and Alfred Nzo West. The district performance in the overall took a new turn in
2022, with three districts performing above 80 percent, Whilst no district was below 70 percent at all.

Alfred Nzo West is a top performing at 82.7 percent, representing an improvement of 9 percent from

303