{"id":812370,"date":"2025-02-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=812370"},"modified":"2025-02-23T13:37:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T11:37:49","slug":"the-public-school-in-south-africa-that-outperforms-most-private-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/812370\/the-public-school-in-south-africa-that-outperforms-most-private-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"The public school in South Africa that outperforms most private schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof in Pretoria achieved the highest number of distinctions of all government schools in South Africa and outperformed most private schools in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department of Basic Education recently announced that South Africa’s final National Senior Certificate (NSC) results for the matric reached a record high pass rate of 87.3%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last 15 years, the NSC pass rate has risen from 60% in 2009 to nearly 90% in 2024, marking a substantial improvement despite the high dropout rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is still far behind the pass rate for private schools. The IEB announced an overall pass rate of 98.47% for its NSC examinations, a slight increase from 98.46% in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof not only outperformed its government school counterparts but also beat most of the top private schools in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity’s Skoleondersteuningsentrum SOS Matric Report for 2024 provides a detailed analysis of the standard of education in South Africa, with a focus on government schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the department’s data, the SOS report noted that Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof, with 811 distinctions, recorded the most distinctions for a government school in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was well above the nearby Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark, which recorded 755 distinctions. Mbiliwi Secondary School in Limpopo was third, recording one less distinction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sibusisiwe Technical High School in KwaZulu-Natal (734) came in fourth, while Ho\u00ebrskool Garsfontein (706) completed the top five. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, at an average of 2.18 distinctions per candidate, Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof outperforms most private schools in matric results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof also achieves these results with far lower school fees relative to the nation’s top private schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof charged R48,860.00 per student. This is far less than the R173,220 charged by St Andrew\u2019s College for day students, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skool<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>Province<\/strong><\/td>Candidates<\/strong><\/td>Total Distinctions<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof<\/td>Gauteng<\/td>371<\/td>811<\/td><\/tr>
Ho\u00ebrskool Menlopark<\/td>Gauteng<\/td>321<\/td>755<\/td><\/tr>
Mbiliwi Secondary School<\/td>Limpopo<\/td>494<\/td>754<\/td><\/tr>
Sibusisiwe Technical High School<\/td>KZN<\/td>306<\/td>734<\/td><\/tr>
Ho\u00ebrskool Garsfontein<\/td>Gauteng<\/td>368<\/td>706<\/td><\/tr>
Afrikaans\u00eb Ho\u00ebr Meisieskool <\/td>Gauteng<\/td>239<\/td>706<\/td><\/tr>
Bizimali High School<\/td>KZN<\/td>440<\/td>687<\/td><\/tr>
Adams College<\/td>KZN<\/td>346<\/td>636<\/td><\/tr>
Rustenburg Girls’ High School<\/td>Western Cape<\/td>172<\/td>622<\/td><\/tr>
Menzi High School<\/td>KZN<\/td>217<\/td>611<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Solidarity’s Skoleondersteuningsentrum SOS Report<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof History <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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Source: Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof’s Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Compared to some of South Africa’s other private and public schools, Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof is relatively new. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school was built along the N1 thoroughfare east of Pretoria and opened in January 1979. It was named after the farm on which it was built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, there were only 215 students, 12 classrooms, and 12 teachers. The school motto was selected as, “We build in faith”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school’s sports and cultural activities were an immediate focus. It had a choir, a drama group, athletics, rugby, tennis, netball, and chess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year later, the school grew to just under 400 pupils and 20 teachers. By 1982, the school had its first matrics, with the number of pupils rising to 895.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This growth would continue, and the school is now home to 2,500 pupils and is regularly named one of the best government schools in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relative to the low pass rate for the rest of South America’s government schools, Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof’s matric pass rate has remained consistently high and around the 100% mark for three decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of its strong sporting capabilities, the school also has several cultural activities, including choir, debating and band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is famed for its strong sports programmes, with its alumni including two-time Rugby World Cup Winner Faf De Klerk and proteas cricketer Janneman Malan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other noteworthy former learners include rugby players Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Marnus Schoeman, and Stefan Watermeyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African actor and singer Hennie Jacobs, quiz show champion Daantjie Badenhorst and sprinter Willem de Beer are also former pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alumni network does not only have well-known figures but also sees former students maintain strong ties with the school, many of who donate to the school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof in Pretoria is one of the top-performing schools in South Africa with exceptional academic and sporting achievements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":812446,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[10297,19932,19376,21763],"class_list":["post-812370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-department-of-basic-education","tag-hoerskool-waterkloof","tag-national-senior-certificate","tag-skoleondersteuningsentrum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812370"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813744,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812370\/revisions\/813744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}