History made as class of 2025 achieves record 88% pass rate
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has announced that the Class of 2025 achieved an 88% pass rate in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations — the highest in South Africa’s history.
Speaking on Monday, 12 January, at the MTV Innovation Centre, Gwarube said the 2025 cohort was the largest group of candidates ever to sit for the matric examinations. The 2025 results show a slight improvement from the 87.3% pass rate recorded in 2024.
The national pass rate has steadily increased over the past five years, rising from 76.4% in 2021, to 80.1% in 2022, 82.9% in 2023, and 87.3% in 2024.
Gwarube also confirmed that every district in the country achieved a pass rate above 80% in the 2025 examinations.
According to Umalusi, the quality assurance body, the 2025 matric exams were written in more than 300 subjects across approximately 9,400 examination centres nationwide. An additional 17,413 candidates sat for the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) exams, which recorded a pass rate of 98.31%.
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