Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola has announced a 93.2% pass rate for prisoners who wrote the national senior certificate exam and attained a total 278 distinctions.
A total of 137 out of 147 full time candidates passed their 2023 National Senior Certificate exams, with 90 obtaining a bachelor’s pass, 34 obtaining diploma passes and 13 passing with higher certificate.
“We also have part-time registered learners in the department of correctional services. When looking at their performance combined with full-time learners, we observe an 84% pass rate, where 157 out of 187 passed. Furthermore, 100 of these learners achieved bachelor’s passes, 41 achieved diploma passes and 16 achieved higher certificate passes,” Lamola said.
The best-performing matric pupil was Christopher Matthew Benn from Brandvlei, Western Cape, who passed with an average of 86.14%.
Benn passed with six distinctions and was awarded the highest performer in geography, at 89% and a high of 92% for tourism.
Lamola also announced that for the first time in the history of correctional services, the department registered a female school in the 2023 academic year.
The school, which is based at Johannesburg Management Area, achieved a 62.5% pass rate.
The top performing learner was Candice Prevost, who was awarded for achieving the highest pass mark in Afrikaans first additional language with 79%, and was awarded for best performing in English home language at 64%.
She has registered with the University of South Africa to study supply chain and logistics.