23 January 2023
Kearsney College has been named the top performing IEB school in KwaZulu-Natal for 2022 after the school’s boys excelled in the matric exams.
Kearsney has earned a well-deserved reputation for excellence in mathematics, and this was, once again, to the fore in the results posted by the class of 2022. Their average mark for the subject, known to be problematic in many South African schools, was 75 percent, with 46 percent of the boys who wrote it achieving A aggregates.
Compared to the overall IEB distinction rate, Kearsney was a full 20 percent higher than that mark of 26 percent. It was the 12th year in succession that the school has produced results roughly double the national distinction rate in the subject.
Kearsney achieved a 100 percent pass rate, with 98 percent of the boys achieving a matric exemption. This compares favourably with the overall IEB average of 89 percent.
Twenty-six percent of the Kearsney boys achieved an A aggregate, while the combined figure for A and B aggregates was a healthy 58 percent.
Much like mathematics, physical science was another subject in which Kearsney performed far above the norm. With 37 percent of boys achieving distinctions, the school more than doubled the national average of 18 percent. The average mark was a sterling 71 percent, nine percent higher than the average IEB rate.
Accounting was another standout subject, with 59 percent of the boys achieving distinctions, compared to the IEB average of 26 percent. The average mark for Kearsney boys was just shy of an A aggregate at 78 percent.
Other subjects in which Kearsney boys excelled included drama, with 48 percent of them achieving distinctions, and the class average falling at exactly 80 percent, and engineering and graphic design in which there was a distinction rate of 51 percent, far above the IEB average of 32.5 percent. Overall, the engineering and graphic design average was 77 percent.
John Eastes was the school’s leading performer. He recorded eight distinctions and was named to the IEB’s Outstanding Achievement list for achieving within the top five percent of all candidates in six or more subjects, and a distinction in life orientation.
Eastes, who also captained the Kearsney 1st football team, told IOL he was grateful for the guidance he received from Kearsney: “They gave me good time management skills and even when there was freedom in my senior years, the discipline that was instilled in me remained. The time one puts in must be of substance. It must be filled with high quality and not with regret and wasted.”
He also said the extremely high level of commitment of the teachers, including for extra lessons, is what allowed Kearsney to separate itself from the pack.
Eastes was one of four boys to achieve eight distinctions. He was joined by Javashkar Naidoo, Owen Payne and Fynn Pollock, with the latter two being named to the IEB’s Commendable Achievement list for achieving within the top five percent in five subjects, and a distinction in life orientation.
Benjamin Burton and Javhar Naidoo recorded seven distinctions each, while Rhys Calenborne, Ethan Glenny, Joshua Owen, Kayden Robinson, Andrew Roden and Aryan Sewsunker received six distinctions.
Just less than a quarter of the matric class of 2022 – 24 percent – achieved four or more distinctions.
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