Back Row (L-R) Akshay Rampersad, Nikhil Ramlal, Sanav Singh, Cameron Cominato. Front Row (L-R) Warren Cox, Mayan Kassim
The 2014 NSC results reaffirm the School’s position as one of the top academic institutions in the country.
From the very beginning, 60 years ago, the School has achieved outstanding academic results and has annually produced some of the top academic pupils not just in the province, but in the country. The 2013 group was a hard act to follow, having boasted the distinction of producing the top pupil in the country and a Bachelors’ pass rate of 90%. The expectations were that 2014 was always going to present a different variety of academic challenges.
Nonetheless, the Class of 2014 did extremely well to achieve 527 subject distinctions and an 86% Bachelor pass rate. Given their considerable number of 270 pupils, it is to their credit that they were able to produce results of this order. It should also be noted that this was done in the context of the first year of a new curriculum, the CAPS, and in a year of general national decline in marks and pass rates in several of the gateway subjects.
Furthermore, the Class of 2014 had the distinction of having two pupils in the KZN Top 10 achiever list. Our sister school, Westville Girls’ High School, also had two representatives in the Top 10 list, once again giving the Top 10 list a decidedly Westville character.
Special accolades go to our top achievers, Sanav Singh and Nikhil Ramlal, for their exceptional achievement of being placed 6th and 8th respectively in KZN. No other boys’ school in the province matched that accomplishment. Akshay Rampersad undertook 9 subjects and had the unique achievement of attaining a distinction in every one. It is unfortunate that the KZN results did not take into account the results of the Accelerated Programme (AP) Mathematics examination which is set by the IEB, as six Westville boys, including Akshay, achieved distinctions in that demanding course.
We are very pleased that 232 of our boys achieved Bachelors’ passes (i.e. 86% of the group). In assessing the quality of passes, another major factor to take into account is that:
- 86% of our boys undertook core Mathematics, and
- 80% undertook Physical Science.
- Some notable statistics for our group of 270 boys were: 99% pass rate (2013: 100%)
- This indicates that they undertake challenging courses in order to keep their career options open, which makes their achievements even more impressive. It is WBHS policy not to encourage our boys to choose softer options.
- 232 boys achieved Bachelor passes i.e. 86% of the group (2013: 90%)
- 6 boys achieved 8 or more distinctions (2013: 9)
- 19 boys achieved 7 or more distinctions (2013: 24)
- 31 boys achieved 6 distinctions or more (2013: 37)
- 45 boys achieved A aggregates (2013: 54)
- 107 boys achieved B aggregates or better (2013: 127)
- 194 boys achieved C aggregates or better (2013: 193)
- 527 subject distinctions were achieved in total (2013: 603)
- 86% of the group undertake Maths rather than Maths Literacy while 80% undertake Physical Science (2013: 92% & 86%).
- Akshay Rampersad achieved 9 distinctions. The boys who each achieved 8 distinctions were: Cameron Cominato, Warren Cox, Mayan Kassim, Nikhil Ramlal and Sanav Singh. Those who achieved 7 distinctions were: Damian Avern-Taplin, Keegan Crawford, Jarred du Plessis, Suhail Gangaram, Joshua Golan, Bivash Jagaran, William Jamieson, Bruce Kerr, Gopala Maharaj, Richard Ogg, Michael Ross, Mehul Shah and Yuric Thambiran.