2025 matric pass rate hits record 88% in South Africa
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has announced that the 2025 matric class achieved a pass rate of 88%, the highest level in history, following a 2024 pass rate of 87.3%.
Gwarube stated that over 900,000 matriculants wrote the 2025 exams administered by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) across 6,000 centres—the largest class in the history of the exams.
All of South Africa’s 75 districts achieved pass rates above 80% for the period.
Examining the details, the state observed that 46% of the passes were for bachelor’s degrees, 28% for diplomas, and 13.5% for higher certificates.
The Minister also gave a detailed breakdown of the 2025 matric pass rates per province:
- KwaZulu-Natal — 90.60%
- Free State — 89.33%
- Gauteng — 89.06%
- North West — 88.49%
- Western Cape — 88.20%
- Northern Cape — 87.79%
- Mpumalanga — 86.55%
- Limpopo — 86.15%
- Eastern Cape — 84.17%
Nevertheless, the Minister acknowledged that South Africa has an exceptionally high dropout rate, suggesting that the pass rate does not accurately reflect the quality of the nation’s basic education system.
The Minister stated that the 30% pass rate used by opposition parties is incorrect, as learners must meet a three-tiered set of subject requirements.
She noted that the department is working on how students progress through grades, starting as early as Grade R.
The DBE is also exploring other ways to enhance the nation’s education system, including ensuring that children can read for meaning by the fourth grade.
The Independent Examination Board (IEB)saw its pass rate decline to 98.31% for the matric 2025 class, a slight drop from the 98.47% seen in 2024. The IEB primarily offers its services to private schools.
IEB-tested students also attained a bachelor’s pass rate of 89.12%, compared to 89.37% in 2024.
Nevertheless, IEB CEO Confidence Dikgole said that the drop is not something to be alarmed by, as fluctuations in the pass rate are expected.
Dikgole said that small fluctuations in the aggregate pass rate are statistically expected and internationally observed in stable assessment systems, as the body adds more schools to its network.
Trouble over the exams
Marking for the 2025 matric exam has not been a simple task, with an investigation detecting alleged corruption among DBE staff.
Markers were alerted when examination papers were in line with the marking guidelines. After alerting the department, an investigation revealed that 40 pupils had accessed the exams before taking them.
The leak affected 40 pupils in the Pretoria area, specifically the English, Maths, and Physical Science papers. One of the now-suspended DBE officials had a child writing the exams.
The leak has sparked debates over the government’s integrity in the marking process. The VF Plus said that the leak could erode trust in public education,
The political party also called on the government to lessen its monopoly on final examinations, as parents will start looking into independent education if the government can’t get its ducks in order.
However, the DBE said that the leak actually highlighted its skill set, as its own markets had highlighted the issue.
Moreover, it noted that the leak was contained to only 40 students, who make up a tiny percentage of the total matric cohort for the year.
The DBE also noted that more independent schools use its services than the IEB and the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI)
“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,” the DBE said.
“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.”
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