Pass Rates Can’t Hide the Violence and Political Neglect

GOOD Statement by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament:

The 2025 matric results in the Western Cape are not just a measure of academic performance; they are a testament to survival.

With an 88.2% pass rate, the province now ranks fifth nationally. But these numbers tell only part of the story. This was no easy achievement.

In too many communities, learners prepared for their final exams to the grim soundtrack of gunshots and cries for help.

They studied while shootings echoed through their streets, wrote after nights of sirens and trauma, and travelled to school through neighbourhoods gripped by violence.

And yet, they persevered.

We honour every learner who reached the exam hall in circumstances no young person should ever have to endure. Their achievement is extraordinary.

But we must also speak of those missing from these results. There should have been more learners writing.

More young people whose education was cut short or derailed, not by lack of ability, but by fear, displacement, and loss.

What makes this even more damning is that this crisis unfolds under a so-called “best regional government”: a government that boasts about clean audits while underspending on education and overspending on a failing safety plan.

These learners are not only battling gang violence, but they are also battling bureaucracy, neglect, and political complacency.

We celebrate those who have passed.

But until learners can study, travel, and write exams without fear of being caught in the crossfire, no set of results can be called a true victory. Until the Western Cape prioritises funding its education mandate over unfunded mandates like faux policing, it robs our province of achieving its full potential.

These matriculants not only passed, but they endured and still chose to hope.

GOOD Manifesto on Social Justice: GOOD emphasizes the importance of social justice for all South Africans.

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