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Nearly half of the class of 2024 passed their final exams well enough to apply to study at a university, with more than 330,000 of South Africa’s Grade 12 learners achieving a bachelor pass.
The proportion of learners scoring the highest-level pass has risen significantly in the past decade. In 2014, less than a third of learners who wrote matric exams achieved a bachelor pass. In 2024, the percentage of bachelor passes was 47.8% – the highest proportion ever recorded.
Grade 12 girls have been outperforming boys since 2020, with 49.2% of girls earning bachelor passes in 2024, according to data from the department of basic education.
A bachelor pass is a minimum requirement for tertiary education, which, according to a Statistics SA earnings report released last year, can have a significant effect on the money a person earns.
This year’s national pass rate was 87.4%. This is a 4.4 percentage point increase from 2023.