The Grade 12 Class of 2024 achieved a historic milestone with a national matric pass rate of 87.3%, the highest pass rate in South African history.
The number of learners achieving a Bachelor's Pass—the highest level of achievement in the matric exams, which grants provisional acceptance to study and enroll in a Bachelor's Degree program at a university—increased by 5.6 percentage points to 47.8%.
The Chairperson of the Higher Education Portfolio Committee, Tebogo Letsie, says that despite this achievement by the Department of Basic Education, it is unfortunate that the higher education sector cannot accommodate all these learners.
We must applaud basic education for that kind of achievement but also on the same breath accept that it's not a good thing from a higher education point of view for having less position than we are being fed.
Letsie suggests several short-term measures to accommodate more learners at universities. These include building new university campuses in underrepresented regions, expanding online education, and encouraging private-sector investment.
Private-sector in South Africa must come in, must play a role, must help government—they must invest in the education of this country.
South Africa is also set to establish two new universities. Both were announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2020 State of the Nation Address, with feasibility studies commencing shortly thereafter.
Phase 1 of these studies was completed in September 2022, and the Department of Higher Education and Training is advancing to Phase 2. This phase encompasses academic planning, financing, governance, administration, and infrastructure development. Construction is expected to begin in 2025.
These initiatives align with South Africa's National Development Plan, which aims to accommodate 1.6 million students in higher education by 2030. This plan seeks to expand access to tertiary education and address skills shortages in critical sectors.
Consider TVET Colleges
Letsie encouraged learners to consider furthering their education at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges.
Colleges actually can produce the best of the best, and what we need to do is improve the infrastructure.
The Chairperson acknowledged that administrative challenges in the past have hindered colleges’ ability to improve their infrastructure, saying, "Many times that we appropriate money on infrastructure for TVET colleges, but they just don’t spend it."
