Cape Town no-fee school lifts matric pass rate from 40.4% to 100%

Cape Town retail worker Vuyokazi Goni was elated when her daughter topped the matric class at a school that lifted its pass rate from 40.4% in 2019 to 100% in 2025.

Goni attended a matric results event at Silikamva High School on Tuesday, alongside Western Cape education MEC David Maynier, on behalf of her 18-year-old daughter, Onako Qhekeka, who was still in the Eastern Cape. She said she had sacrificed everything to ensure Onako received a better education.

“I am very excited. I did not expect her to achieve such results,” said Goni.

“I am grateful to my daughter for focusing on her studies, and I also want to thank her teachers. I am overjoyed. I never imagined a child in our family would lift our name to this level. We are a struggling family, but today I feel like everyone else.”

Goni said Onako wants to study medicine.

“I encouraged her to raise her standards. I am hoping for a bursary to assist her in pursuing her dream,” she said.

Silikamva High School, which serves learners from Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay, improved its matric pass rate from 40.4% in 2019 to 100%. The improvement followed a partnership with the NPO Common Good.

The Quintile 3 no-fee school, founded in 2013, recorded a 76% bachelor’s pass rate, 75 subject distinctions, and a 100% pass rate in eight subjects, including physical sciences.

Maynier praised the school’s achievement.

“To turn things around, the school management made the decision to invest in improving the school’s culture, with the help of their collaboration school operating partner, Common Good,” he said.

“Their decision to focus on continuous improvement, personal growth, discipline, motivating learners and staff, and building relationships with parents and the surrounding community has paid off.

“For the first time since the school was founded, the matric class of 2025 achieved a matric pass rate of 100%. In addition, they achieved an outstanding bachelor’s pass rate of 76%, which is a clear indicator of the school’s focus on the quality of their matric passes, which opens up greater opportunities for their matriculating learners.”

Principal Siphathisiwe Nkala-Nkohla revealed the key to the school’s success.

“Our results are a reflection of the strong academic culture we have inculcated as a school, the use of data to improve results, the commitment of our educators and the support of parents and our school operating partner [Common Good],” she said.

“We are proud of what has been achieved, and we look forward to our matriculating learners using this solid foundation to access further education, meaningful opportunities, and to become responsible, contributing citizens in the future.”

Murray Gibbon, Common Good’s education programme director, said the organisation worked alongside the school to improve its culture, teaching and learning in the classroom, and operations.

“The real heroes are the staff members, the principal, the deputy principal and the management team. They do the work,” Gibbon said.

“We support them, we strategise, we help them plan. We share our knowledge and experience. We do some training for the leaders so they can then implement it at the school.”

Gibbon said the organisation works with four no-fee government schools in Cape Town.

“This is the only high school. The other three are primary schools ― in Bonteheuwel, Eersterivier and Imizamo Yethu,” he said.

“These are the least-resourced schools in tough communities. We work with the education department to identify them.”