Unique South African school achieves 100% university exemption and 4.4 distinctions per student

·14 Jan 2026

Yeshiva College achieved something very special. It achieved a 100% pass rate, 100% university exemption, and 4.4 distinctions per student in the 2025 matric exams.

Yeshiva College of South Africa, located in Glenhazel, Johannesburg, is the country’s largest religious Jewish day school.

It is an independent private school that follows a Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist philosophy. Pupils study a double curriculum, focusing on Torah and secular studies.

The school was founded in 1951 by Rabbi Michel Kossowsky and Rabbi Joseph Bronner, who had settled in South Africa.

Kossowsky was an Eastern European Talmudic scholar ,and Bronner was an alumnus of the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, New York.

Yeshiva College showed strong growth and became the largest torah school in Southern Africa and amongst the largest in the southern hemisphere.

Yeshiva has over 1040 students across its playschool, pre-primary school, primary school, girls’ high school, and boys’ high school.

“Zionism and a deep commitment to the people, land and state of Israel are at the heart of our ethos,” the school said.

Sport is central to the school’s curriculum, and Yeshiva continues to excel across all sporting arenas.

“Our mission is to create a nurturing environment in which the school partners with parents to provide excellence in Torah Chinuch and general studies,” it said.

“This helps prepare children for life and its responsibilities as Torah Jews, with values in line with the core values of our school.”

The school focuses on academic excellence, which is evident in its consistently outstanding matric results and 100% pass rate.

Yeshiva College 2025 matric results

Yeshiva College writes the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations.

As was the case in previous years, it excelled in the 2025 matric exams with a 100% pass rate and 100% university exemption.

Yeshiva College achieved 4.4 distinctions per student, which places it ahead of other top-priced schools like Roedean School for Girls and St Mary’s Waverly.

Two students received 9 distinctions, three received 8 distinctions, four students received 7 distinctions, and seven students received 6 distinctions.

Yeshiva College achieved a matric grade average of 78.9% and four students were in the top 1% of their subjects.