Education MEC David Maynier has heaped praise on Khayelitsha’s Centre of Science and Technology school, which scored a 99% pass rate in the matric exams.
Mr Maynier, along with various education department officials and other dignitaries, visited the school on Friday last week, following the release of the matric results.
Cosat opened in 1999 in response to the shortage of maths and science matriculants from township schools in the province. The 99% pass rate is an increase from the 92.5% the school achieved for the 2022 matric results.
According to Mr Maynier, the school also achieved a 61.2% Bachelor’s pass rate and produced 107 distinctions including 10 for maths. Four candidates scored more than 90% for maths and four physical sciences distinctions.
“Every candidate at the school enrols for mathematics and physical sciences, which are key indicators of education quality. This year, Cosat achieved a mathematics pass rate of 99%, and a physical sciences pass rate of 91.3%,” he said.
“I applaud the 2023 matriculants because you gave no excuse and delivered just like your school motto (No excuses just success).”
Mr Maynier said the schools in the metro east district had in the past produced poor results due to socio-economic ills, but over the past three years, that trend had changed and he hoped it would continue.
“This is the third time that I’m visiting the metro east district matric celebration. Sometime ago, this district was at the bottom when it comes to matric results, but for the last three years, the district has been working hard, ensuring that they improve the quality of results. This year, the district results stand at 83.5%. What a remarkable achievement.”
Cosat’s top achiever Ntsika Oyama Madondile, 18, scored seven distinctions and 100% for information technology.
An excited Ntsika said he had worked hard and had aimed for a 90% aggregate to make his parents proud, but he had never expected to be the school’s ace matriculant.
Asked about the secret to his success, he said he had changed his sleeping patterns to sleep during load shedding so that he could use the time when there was electricity for his studies.
“I will study at UCT for a computer-science degree. I’m so happy that I made my parents proud and my school as well. I have achieved something that is beyond my imagination, and for that I thank God.”
School principal Tiro Motaung said hard work, above everything else, was the source of the school’s success, and he praised his teachers for putting in extra hours to help their pupils.
Ntsika’s visibly emotional father, Mzuvukile Lennox Madondile, said that as a boy, he too had been brilliant at school but his parents had not had the means to send him to university so he had vowed to give his children the opportunity he had not had himself.
The metro east district’s director, Landie Diamond, said she was proud of how the schools in Khayelitsha had done because when she had started in her position three years ago, the district had had 15 schools labelled as “red schools”, meaning they were under-performing with pass rates below 60%.
A lot of work had been done to turn that situation around, she said, adding that Khayelitsha schools were now doing well and, in some cases, were outperforming former model-C schools. She added that the district had recorded its highest ever pass rate for the 2023 results – 83%, up from 78% in 2022.
