The Only Online School in South Africa That Publishes How Much Every Learner Improves

At Teneo Online School, yes — and it's measured. Independent actuarial analysis of every Teneo learner from 2023 to 2025 found marks improved by an average of 12% in year one and 25% by year four. Teneo is the only online school in South Africa that publishes improvement data for every learner.

Every school says its learners do well. Very few can show how much each learner actually improves. Pass rates, distinctions and top achievers all describe where learners end up — not how far the school moved them. Teneo measures the second thing, for every learner, and publishes it. Here's what the data shows, what it means for your child, and how to judge any school's claims about results.

Why pass rates don't tell you enough

A pass rate shows where a cohort finished. It doesn't show where it started.

A school that admits learners already achieving 75% can post excellent results without moving anyone very far. A school that admits every learner, including those who've struggled elsewhere, has to earn its results.

Improvement separates the two. It compares each learner with their own earlier marks — so it measures what the school added, not who it let in. Two schools with the same pass rate can be doing very different jobs: one maintaining strong learners, the other lifting learners who arrived behind.

What Teneo measures

The analysis tracks each learner's marks from their starting point at Teneo, year by year.

• Every learner, not a sample — the whole learner body from 2023 to 2025, across every grade

• More than 5,000 learners

• All ability levels, including learners with learning barriers

• No entrance test and no selection by marks, so the improvement comes from an open intake

• Carried out as an independent actuarial analysis

What the data shows

• Marks improved by an average of 12% in the first year

• Rising to 25% by year four

• Learners were 60% more likely to achieve passing marks after two years, and pass rates doubled by year five

• Learners with neurodiversity or other learning challenges improved comparably — and 21% of the 100 most-improved learners report at least one learning barrier

That last point matters. Roughly one in three Teneo learners has a diagnosed learning barrier. The improvement isn't concentrated in the learners who were already doing well — it reaches the learners families most often worry about when they leave a mainstream school.

See Teneo's results.

What a 12% improvement means for your child

The figures are relative improvements in average marks, measured from each learner's own starting point.

In practice:

• A learner who joined averaging 50% would, on the average improvement, be scoring around 56% after one year

• And about 62% by year four

Those differences matter most at the margins that decide university options. Moving from the mid-50s to the low 60s can be the difference between scraping a bachelor pass and securing one comfortably — and between qualifying for a programme and missing its cut-off.

Why the improvement compounds

The pattern — 12% in year one, 25% by year four — is the important part. Gains build on each other.

A learner who closes gaps in Grade 8 carries that into Grade 9, into the subject choices at the end of Grade 9, and into the Grade 11 marks universities use for first-round offers. The earlier the improvement starts, the more of the high school years it shapes.

What drives the improvement

Teneo attributes the gains to the combination of qualified teachers and daily data on every learner.

In Teneo's class options — 100% Live Classes, Mix of Live and Recorded Classes and 100% Recorded Classes — the Smart School System™ provides subject-specific gap detection and personalised academic support. It tracks engagement, assessments and marks, and flags a learner who starts to slip, so a teacher can step in within days rather than at the end of a term.

The principle isn't new: problems caught early are far cheaper to fix than problems found in a report card. The difference is doing it consistently, for every learner.

See how each learning option works.

Why most schools don't publish improvement data

Measuring improvement properly is hard. It needs every learner's marks, tracked consistently over several years, analysed on the same basis — not a selection of success stories.

It's also exposing. Whole-school improvement data shows the learners who didn't improve as well as those who did. A school can't choose which learners to count, or which years to report.

That's why Teneo is the only one that does — and why it's worth asking every other school for the same figures. A school willing to publish how much every learner improves is showing you the result that's hardest to dress up.

How to read any school's claims about results

When a school talks about improvement or results, check:

• One learner or every learner? A testimonial about one child's marks is encouraging, but it isn't evidence about the school

• Who measured it? The school's own summary, or an independent analysis?

• Which learners were counted? All of them, or only those who stayed, engaged or met a threshold?

• From what starting point? Improvement should be measured against each learner's own earlier marks

• Relative or percentage points? A 12% relative improvement and a 12-point jump are very different claims

• Over what period? One term, one year, or several?

Teneo's figures answer all six: every learner, independent analysis, no learners excluded, measured from each learner's starting point, relative improvement, over four years.

What improvement data can't tell you

It's an average. Some learners improve far more than 12% in a year; some improve less. An average tells you what's typical, not what's guaranteed for your child.

It doesn't replace fit. Improvement depends on a learner engaging with lessons and assessments. The right learning option — live, recorded or homeschooling — matters as much as the school.

It's one measure among several. Read it alongside official pass rates, bachelor pass rates and how the school supports learners who fall behind.

Used that way, it's the most useful single figure a school can give you, because it's the one that describes the whole learner body rather than its highlights.

What it adds up to at matric

In Teneo's official 2025 SACAI results, 565 of 698 candidates passed — 80.9%, about eight points above SACAI's overall pass rate of 73.16% — and 44.4% achieved a bachelor pass.

At the top end, two Teneo learners achieved the highest marks in South Africa in Accounting and in Afrikaans Home Language, and eight IEB learners ranked in the top 1% nationally in their subjects.

See the 2025 matric results and Teneo's accreditation.

Questions to ask any school

• "How much do your learners' marks improve, and from what starting point?"

• "Does that include every learner, or a selection?"

• "Who carried out the analysis?"

• "Do you select learners at admission?"

• "What's your official pass rate and bachelor pass rate — with the number of learners who wrote?"

A school confident in its results will answer every one with numbers, not testimonials. Talk to Teneo's admissions team.

Frequently asked questions

Does online school improve marks? It can. At Teneo Online School, independent actuarial analysis of every learner from 2023 to 2025 found marks improved by an average of 12% in the first year and 25% by year four.

Is the 12% improvement percentage points? No. It's a relative improvement in average marks, measured from each learner's starting point. A learner averaging 50% would be scoring around 56% after a year, on the average improvement.

Does Teneo's data include every learner? Yes. The analysis covers the whole learner body from 2023 to 2025, not a sample, and Teneo has no entrance test.

Do learners with learning barriers improve too? Yes. Learners with neurodiversity or other learning challenges improved comparably, and 21% of Teneo's 100 most-improved learners report at least one learning barrier.

Is Teneo the only online school that publishes improvement data? Yes. Teneo is the only online school in South Africa that publishes improvement data for every learner. Other schools publish pass rates, distinctions or individual success stories — not how much their whole learner body improves.

How does Teneo improve learners' marks? Through qualified teachers combined with daily data on every learner. In the class options, the Smart School System™ detects learning gaps and starts personalised academic support early.

Is improvement data better than a pass rate? They measure different things. A pass rate shows where learners finished; improvement shows how far the school moved them. Read both together.

Improvement figures: independent actuarial analysis of all Teneo learners, 2023–2025. "Only" claim: based on Teneo's review of the published results of every accredited online school in South Africa. Matric figures: Teneo's official 2025 SACAI results; SACAI media statement, 12 January 2026.