Big battle over public schools in South Africa
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has hit back at the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) after it called for public schools to choose which examination body they use for matric.
The VF Plus’s call comes after an investigation by the DBE uncovered a leak with the 2025 Matric papers.
The Gauteng Department of Education alerted the DBE over the similarity between answers and the marking guideline for English Home Language Paper 2.
Over 20 learners admitted to gaining access to question papers and marking guidelines before the exam.
Investigators traced the material back to the DBE’s national office, with three subjects accessed prior to the examinations: Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and English Home Language.
The leak, which was distributed via a USB device, was confined to seven schools in one area of Pretoria. Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube suspended two officials from the department.
The VF Plus’ Dr Wynand Boshoff said that the leak erodes confidence in the public education system, adding that interest in independent education will only increase in the coming years.
There are three examination authorities in South Africa: the DBE, the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) and the Independent Examinations Board (IEB).
Boshoff said that the latter two consistently manage their examinations without fraud or controversy.
“When cheating in exams comes to light, the department’s usual defence is the enormous scale of the examinations it oversees.”
“However, what makes this year’s breach different is that it reportedly took place at headquarters, not at some remote examination centre where ensuring control is difficult.”
The VF Plus has said that public schools should be allowed to choose which examination board they wish to use.
Boshoff said that if the department refuses to relinquish its monopoly on managing final examinations, parents will start looking into independent education.
“Ultimately, the National Senior Certificate (NSC) – or matric – is the foundation on which young adults build their careers. Ensuring the integrity of that Certificate is critically essential,” he added.
Department responds
The DBE responded to Boshoff, stating that it is inaccurate and analytically unsound to say the integrity of the NSC is fundamentally compromised or that independent examination bodies are inherently more secure.
“At the outset, it must be stated without qualification that any compromise of examination integrity is unacceptable, regardless of its scale or origin. The DBE does not minimise such incidents.”
“Importantly, the detection of the irregularities itself demonstrates the robustness of the DBE’s quality assurance and monitoring systems.”
It added that claiming that examination irregularities are unique to the public examination system shows an uninformed and extremely narrow view of national and global assessment systems.
It stated that no examination authority, whether public or private, is entirely immune from human misconduct, with examination breaches being observed across highly regarded systems worldwide.
“Claims that independent or international examination bodies operate without risk or controversy are therefore misleading.
“In South Africa, the DBE, the IEB, and the SACAI work collaboratively through formal service-level agreements to ensure coherence, quality assurance, and national benchmarking.”
“This cooperation strengthens the credibility of the national examination ecosystem rather than fragmenting it.”
It further noted that the narrative that the DBE exercises an unjustifiable monopoly over public examinations reflects a misunderstanding of the nation’s education structure.
There are several examination authorities that are legally recognised. Notably, more independent schools are choosing to write the NSC examination administered by the DBE than with the IEB or SACAi.
With over 900,000 students writing the state paper in 2025, the NSC is one of the largest standardised examination systems in the world.
The DBE stated that citing isolated incidents without acknowledging the scale is misleading, as the vast majority of examination cycles conclude without material irregularities.
“Calls for public schools to ‘choose which examination board they wish to use’ or for the DBE to relinquish its constitutional mandate are not only short-sighted and impractical,” it added.
“They also undermine the efforts and resources invested in building a national examination system that is legally sound, internationally benchmarked, and recognised nationally and internationally.”
The 2025 matric marks will be released on 13 January 2026, as the DBE also battles with the Information Regulator over the publishing of matric results in newspapers.
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