Despite their costly tuition fees, private schools in South Africa are known for their prestige and excellent results year-on-year \u2013 but some are the cream of the crop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The perception that private schools provide a superior education is why many parents opt to send their children to these schools in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Private schools generally offer smaller class sizes, more individual attention, and access to highly qualified teachers due to having more funding than their public counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These differences seemed to reflect in their 2023 matric results, with the Department of Basic Education publishing the final National Senior Certificate results for the matric year showing a 2.8 percentage point increase in the pass rate to 82.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reaching above this, on Thursday (18 January), the IEB announced an overall pass rate of 98.46% for its 2023 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations \u2013 a slight uptick from the 98.4% recorded in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The IEB and its board congratulated the matric class of 2023 and extended congratulations to their teachers, parents, guardians, and all those who supported the learners in their studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interestingly, all the top 10 independent girls\u2019 schools on this list achieved more distinctions per candidate than almost all the top boy\u2019s schools \u2013 with the exception of St John’s College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same is true for most of the co-educational schools \u2013 with the top six achieving over 3 distinctions per candidate, on average. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
St John\u2019s College topped the all-boys schools, reporting an average of 4.13 distinctions per candidate \u2013 topping the list of all top-performing private schools in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hilton College followed this in second with 2.8 distinctions and St Benedict\u2019s College in third with 2.25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comparatively, Roedean School for Girls and Kingsmead College tied as the top achievers among the all-girls schools \u2013 reporting an impressive 3.8 distinctions per candidate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was followed by St Andrew\u2019s Senderwood (3.7) and St Mary\u2019s Waverly (3.7), tied in second place and Durban Girls\u2019 College (3.6), which make up the top five girls\u2019 schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Co-educational schools also produced some notable results, with SAHETI and Redhill School topping the lot with an average of 4 distinctions per candidate. Crawford College Sandton is third with 3.7 distinctions, while Herzlia High School (3.50) and King David Linksfield (3.36) rounded out the top five. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Combining these subcategories to list the top 10 best-performing private schools, the ranking comprises all-girls and co-educational schools, without any top all-boys schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The top 10 overall best-performing schools are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tables below rank the top girls, boys, and co-educational schools based on their average distinctions per candidate and how much they cost per year in school fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Note: we looked at the most expensive schools in South Africa and how they compared academically. Due to the large number of IEB schools across South Africa, well-known schools with some of the highest fees – with a yearly fee of over R130,000 – were considered. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The top girls\u2019 schools <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The top boys\u2019 schools<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The top co-educational schools <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n#<\/th> School<\/th> Location<\/th> Average distinctions<\/th><\/tr> 1=<\/td> Roedean<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 3.80 <\/td><\/tr> 1=<\/td> Kingsmead College<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 3.80<\/td><\/tr> 2=<\/td> Durban Girls\u2019 College<\/td> Durban, KwaZulu-Natal<\/td> 3.70<\/td><\/tr> 2=<\/td> St Andrew\u2019s Senderwood<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 3.70<\/td><\/tr> 2=<\/td> St Mary\u2019s Waverly<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 3.70<\/td><\/tr> 6<\/td> St Stithians Girls College<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 3.28<\/td><\/tr> 7=<\/td> Diocesan School for Girls<\/td> Makhanda, Eastern Cape<\/td> 3.20<\/td><\/tr> 7=<\/td> St Cyprian\u2019s School<\/td> Cape Town, Western Cape<\/td> 3.20<\/td><\/tr> 9<\/td> St Mary\u2019s DSG Kloof<\/td> Kloof, KwaZulu-Natal<\/td> 3.10<\/td><\/tr> 10<\/td> St Anne\u2019s Diocesan College<\/td> Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal<\/td> 2.95<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n#<\/strong><\/th> School<\/strong><\/th> Location<\/strong><\/th> Average distinctions<\/strong><\/th><\/tr> 1<\/td> St John\u2019s College<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 4.13<\/td><\/tr> 2<\/td> Hilton<\/td> Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal<\/td> 2.80<\/td><\/tr> 3<\/td> St Benedict\u2019s College<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 2.25<\/td><\/tr> 4<\/td> St Stithians Boys College<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 2.13<\/td><\/tr> 5<\/td> St David\u2019s Marist Inanda<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 2.10<\/td><\/tr> 6<\/td> St Alban’s College<\/td> Pretoria, Gauteng<\/td> 2.05<\/td><\/tr> 7<\/td> MichaelHouse<\/td> Balgowan, KwaZulu-Natal<\/td> 2.00<\/td><\/tr> 8<\/td> Clifton School<\/td> Durban, KwaZulu-Natal<\/td> 1.89<\/td><\/tr> 9<\/td> St Andrew\u2019s College<\/td> Makhanda, Eastern Cape<\/td> 1.80<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n#<\/strong><\/th> School<\/strong><\/th> Location<\/strong><\/th> Average distinctions<\/strong><\/th><\/tr> 1=<\/td> SAHETI<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 4.00<\/td><\/tr> 1=<\/td> Redhill School<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 4.00<\/td><\/tr> 3<\/td> Crawford College Sandton<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 3.70<\/td><\/tr> 4<\/td> Herzlia High School<\/td> Cape Town, Western Cape<\/td> 3.50<\/td><\/tr> 5<\/td> King David Linksfield<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 3.36<\/td><\/tr> 6<\/td> Deutsche Internationale Schule<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 3.35<\/td><\/tr> 7<\/td> Crawford College La Lucia<\/td> Durban, KwaZulu-Natal<\/td> 3.29<\/td><\/tr> 8<\/td> Somerset College<\/td> Stellenbosch, Western Cape<\/td> 3.20<\/td><\/tr> 9<\/td> Reddam House Waterfall<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 3.15<\/td><\/tr> 10<\/td> Crawford College Lonehill<\/td> Johannesburg, Gauteng<\/td> 2.49<\/td><\/tr> 11<\/td> Cornwall Hill College<\/td> Centurion, Gauteng<\/td> 2.40<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n