{"id":847581,"date":"2026-01-12T08:57:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T06:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=847581"},"modified":"2026-04-02T09:51:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T07:51:52","slug":"matric-pass-rate-drops-for-south-african-private-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/847581\/matric-pass-rate-drops-for-south-african-private-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Matric pass rate drops for South African private schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Independent Examination Board (IEB) has seen its pass rate decline to 98.31% for the Matric 2025 class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported by News24<\/a>, the 2025 matric pass for the IEB exams marked a slight decline from the 98.47% seen in 2024. The IEB primarily offers its services to private schools nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The class of 2025 attained a bachelor’s pass rate of 89.12%, compared to 89.37% in 2024. There was also a decline in the number of candidates who qualify for diploma studies, from 7.56% to 7.83%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, IEB CEO Confidence Dikgole said that the drop is not something to be alarmed by, as fluctuations in the pass rate are expected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dikgole said that as the IEB continues to grow, small fluctations in the aggregate pass rate are statistically expected and internationally observed in stable assessment systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 17,143 pupils took the IEB exams in 2025, including both full-time and part-time candidates, compared to 16,304 in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pales in comparison to the NSC exams administered by the government, where over 900,000 students wrote the state’s paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube will announce the 2025 results later today, 12 January 2026, with individual access from 13 January. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the private school pass rate declined in 2025, there is hope that Gwarube will announce an improvement on 2024’s government pass rate of 87.3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Battle over public and private schools<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Testing for the 2025 matric year has faced criticism after 40 pupils were involved in an examination leak affecting the English, Maths and Physical Science exams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two DBE officials have been identified as the source of the leak and have been suspended pending investigation. One official had a child writing the matric exams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leak has raised questions about the government’s ability to conduct the exam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three examination authorities in South Africa: the DBE, the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) and the IEB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VF Plus\u2019 Dr Wynand Boshoff <\/a>said that the latter two consistently manage their examinations without fraud or controversy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that the leak erodes confidence in the public education system, noting that independent education is expected to increase in the coming years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen cheating in exams comes to light, the department\u2019s usual defence is the enormous scale of the examinations it oversees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, what makes this year\u2019s breach different is that it reportedly took place at headquarters, not at some remote examination centre where ensuring control is difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boshoff warned that if the DBE does not relinquish its monopoly on managing final examinations, parents will start looking into independent education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the DBE responded by stating that the leak actually demonstrates the robustness of its quality assurance and monitoring systems, as markers identified the irregularity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that the leak was confined to just 40 students, who make up a microscopic percentage of the roughly 1 million total matrics in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While independent schools typically use the IEB, the DBE noted that many independent schools still choose to write the NSC examination that it administers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article amended to improve clarity and fix errors related to the number of students. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pass rate for the exams administered by the IEB has dropped slightly, but this is par for the course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":657783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[19133],"class_list":["post-847581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-ieb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847581"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847647,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847581\/revisions\/847647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}