Western Cape Education MEC David Maynier celebrated the release of the Class of 2025’s individual results at Silikamva High School in Hout Bay, and the school’s record-breaking results this year.
Silikamva is a Quintile 3 no-fee school founded in 2013 and has struggled in the past, with a matric pass rate of just 40.4% in 2019.
To turn things around, the school management team decided to invest in improving the school’s culture, with the help of their collaboration school operating partner, Common Good.
Their decision to focus on continuous improvement, personal growth, discipline, motivating learners and staff, and building relationships with parents and the surrounding community has paid off.
For the first time since the school was founded, the matric Class of 2025 achieved a matric pass rate of 100%.
“The school’s name means ‘we are the future’, and with matric results like these, that future is very bright!” – MEC David Maynier
In addition, they achieved an outstanding bachelor’s pass rate of 76.0%, which is a clear indicator of the school’s focus on the quality of their matric passes, which opens up greater opportunities for their matriculating learners.
The school’s candidates earned 75 subject distinctions, with a 100% pass rate for 8 subjects, including Physical Science.
Principal Siphathisiwe Nkahla-Nkohla shared the secret to the school’s success:
“Our results are a reflection of the strong academic culture we have inculcated as a school, the use of data to improve results, the commitment of our educators and the support of parents and our school operating partner (Common Good).
We are proud of what has been achieved and we look forward to our matriculating learners using this solid foundation to access further education, meaningful opportunities and to become responsible, contributing citizens in the future.”
District results
Two Western Cape districts have achieved pass rates of over 90% in 2025.
The Overberg Education District is 1st place with a 92.4% pass rate (3rd highest district pass rate in the country) and a bachelor’s pass rate of 49.5%
The Metro East Education District maintains the 2nd spot, with a matric pass rate of 90.2% and a bachelor’s pass rate of 50.2%.
All the remaining districts scored over 80% this year:
• Metro North Education District – 89.2%
• Eden and Central Karoo Education District – 89.1%
• Metro South Education District – 87.7%
• West Coast Education District – 87.4%
• Metro Central Education District – 87.0%
• Cape Winelands Education District – 84.6%
Across districts, the number of underperforming public ordinary schools with pass rates of 60% or below has declined even further this year, from 5 schools in 2024 to just 2 in 2025.
Quintile results
Maynier says they continue to see improvements across no-fee school quintiles, with all quintiles increasing their pass rates and achieving a pass rate of above 80%.
- Quintile 1 achieved a matric pass rate of 82.0% and a bachelor’s pass rate of 36.1%.
- Quintile 2 schools increased their pass rates again this year, with a matric pass rate of 85.5% and a bachelor’s pass rate of 38.2%.
- Quintile 3 schools achieved a similar increase, with a matric pass rate of 84.3% and a bachelor’s pass rate of 38.9%.
The matric pass rates for Quintile 2 and Quintile 3 schools have exceeded the pass rate for Quintile 4 (83.7%).
More importantly, the bachelor’s pass rates for Quintiles 1, 2 and 3 all exceed that of Quintile 4 (34.4%), demonstrating that our no-fee schools are rapidly catching up in terms of quality of matric passes.
Re-marks, re-checks, and June exams
Maynier has encouraged all learners who did not pass their exams not to give up and to continue doing whatever they can to complete Grade 12.
They can apply for a re-mark or re-check if they do not feel their results reflect their performance, or write the exams in June.
More information on these options is available on the WCED website.
