The Eastern Cape celebrated its top-performing matric learners today, 13 January, at the 2025 Matric Achievers Award ceremony held at the East London ICC, with the province recording an 84.2% matric pass rate despite facing significant challenges throughout 2025.
Three outstanding learners claimed top provincial honours at the ceremony.
Provincial top performers
First Place: Maria Caitlin Freercks from Collegiate Girls High School in Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay, achieved second place nationally among Quintile 5 schools, the highest achievement in the province.
Speaking to Nova News, Freercks expressed her overwhelming joy: “It’s a surreal feeling, through the grace of Jesus Christ and the support of my parents and the teachers at Collegiate Girls High.”
The top achiever plans to pursue medicine at the University of Cape Town.
Second place: Danel Muller from Clarendon Girls High School in Buffalo City Metro emphasised that her success proves hard work pays off. “I did not expect to be so high up,” she said excitedly, adding that she will be studying civil engineering at Stellenbosch University.
Third place: Emma Caroline Booyens, also from Clarendon Girls High School in Buffalo City Metro, expressed her pride in the achievement: “This achievement means a lot to me. I didn’t really expect it, but I worked really hard throughout matric, so to be rewarded for all that hard work means a lot.”
Booyens plans to study medicine at Stellenbosch University.
Educational challenges and vision
During today’s proceedings, Eastern Cape Department of Education MEC Fundile Gade addressed concerning trends in matric performance, particularly in Pure Mathematics, isiXhosa, and English First Additional Language (FAL).
“We cannot fail an African language,” Gade declared, questioning: “Why are we failing the subjects we are not supposed to fail?”
The MEC emphasised a shift toward genuine knowledge acquisition rather than studying merely to pass examinations.
Gade also acknowledged the significant challenges faced in 2025, with floods affecting 413 schools and 48,341 learners across the province, particularly in the OR Tambo District where 156 schools and 14,857 learners were impacted.
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