Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube confirmed the 2025 National Senior Certificate exam pass rate on Monday evening.
The matric class of 2025 has achieved a record-breaking pass rate of 88%.
The official National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam results were announced by Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube on Monday evening.
The latest pass rate is an increase of 0.7% over last year’s 87.3%.
“To every premier, every MEC, every head of department, every district director, every principal, and every teacher, these outcomes are built day by day, term by term, year by year – and we honour the work behind them,” Gwarube said during the announcement.
“To the class of 2025, I say congratulations on a record-breaking 88% pass rate. You have shown resilience – not only in these examinations, but across years of learning in a country that has asked much of you.”
The minister also shared words of encouragement with pupils who did not achieve the results they had hoped for.
She said they were not failures, and their stories were not over.
Gwarube added that there are pathways to improve their results, including rewrites, support programmes, and second-chance opportunities.
“What matters now is that you take the next step, with support, and without shame.”
Earlier in the day, the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) announced it had achieved an overall pass rate of 98.31%, with all candidates who successfully completed the 2025 IEB NSC examinations achieving a pass that qualifies them to study further.
Individual IEB candidates received their personal results on Monday afternoon, while those who wrote through the Department of Basic Education (DBE) will have to wait until Tuesday morning.
The South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (Sacai) also conducts exams and achieved an overall pass rate of 73.16%.
According to Umalusi, a total of 927 143 candidates wrote the NSC examinations in 2025, through the DBE, IEB and Sacai. Of these, 903 561 full-time and part-time candidates wrote under the DBE, while 17 414 sat for the IEB exams, and 6 168 candidates wrote through Sacai.
