The matric class of 2025 in the Eastern Cape has fallen short of achieving the targeted 87% pass rate, recording a slight decline compared with last year’s record performance.
The pass rate in the province dropped by 0.7 percentage points, from 84.9% in 2024 to 84.2% this time round.
Despite the marginal decline, none of the Eastern Cape’s 12 education districts recorded a pass rate below 80% in the latest National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations.
In 2024, 99,739 pupils wrote their matric exams, of whom 84,760 passed. Last year, 106,561 candidates sat for the exams, with 89,694 achieving a pass.
The number of pupils who did not meet the requirements rose from 14,979 in 2024 to 16,867 last year.
The results were announced by basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube in Gauteng on Monday evening.
While 45.78% (45,662) of Eastern Cape pupils achieved bachelor’s passes in 2024, that figure declined to 41.54% (44,267) last year — a drop of 4.24 percentage points, or 1,395 fewer bachelor’s passes.
Education MEC Fundile Gade said several factors had contributed to the slight decline in performance.
It is understood that Joe Gqabi emerged as the top-performing district in the province, displacing Chris Hani East, which dropped to second place.
Nelson Mandela Bay, Sarah Baartman and Buffalo City Metro are also believed to be among the top districts.
While four of the province’s 12 districts improved their rankings compared with 2024, six regressed and two remained unchanged.
Sarah Baartman reportedly recorded the most significant improvement, while Alfred Nzo East experienced the steepest decline.
The province is also understood to have recorded a notable drop in performance in pure mathematics, English first additional language and isiXhosa.
The official final provincial breakdown was not available by the time of publication as Gade was expected to present it in East London on Tuesday.
Speaking late on Monday, he said 2025 “was not an easy year in terms of education delivery”.
He cited several challenges faced by pupils, including the devastating floods in the OR Tambo region which disrupted teaching and learning, strike action by scholar transport operators during exams in June and November, and a national decline in performance across several subjects.
He also pointed to the suspension, on the eve of the exams, of 12 school principals for alleged financial misconduct.
In addition, more than 30 teachers in eight districts were suspended over allegations including sexual misconduct.
“Suspensions of principals and educators during the exam period cost us at some of these high-enrolment schools,” Gade said.
“We could have postponed their cases to January so that we don’t jeopardise the flow of the system and the momentum.
“Also, bringing district directors to the head office time and again for summits and strategic sessions left the monitoring bare and vulnerable, which means we will need to develop another strategy on policy reviews to keep the ecosystem oiled up.
“Yes, we have made wrong ... decisions, which we must correct.”
Yes, we have made wrong ... decisions, which we must correct.
Gade described the decline as a temporary setback, saying it was “unfortunate, but equally necessary in order for us not to take things for granted”.
“But equally key is how we oil up the ecosystem entirely to respond to the setback, to respond to the huge number of learners who were sick during exams, and the anxiety syndromes which require intensive psychological readiness on the side of both the kids and our educators, because of the heavily loaded tasks they have done and experienced,” he said.
“We also need to reduce disruptions and have a better way to handle them, like the suspensions of the workforce, in particular educators, during exams.
“This is a collective setback which requires all of us to go back to the drawing board and reclaim the lost ground. We need to learn one or two lessons from this setback.”
Gade said the provincial government needed to “continue to encourage and resource the coalface of the schooling system” and better manage contractual obligations linked to the sector’s core mandate".
“Our educators, despite these challenges, have been able to hold the fort and deserve to be applauded, as this was a difficult year for them,” he said.
DA MPL Horatio Hendricks congratulated the class of 2025, saying they had worked under difficult circumstances.
“The real story in the matric results is not a single percentage, but whether the system is improving on quality indicators, and whether learners are being retained through to grade 12,” he said.
“Last year, when the Eastern Cape recorded a historic pass rate, we congratulated the class of 2024, but we also warned that too many learners are ‘unaccounted for’ in the system.
“If learners are lost between grade 10 and grade 12, that is a serious system weakness that a headline pass rate cannot hide, and it requires proper tracking and retention interventions.”
Hendricks said the DA had consistently warned against placing too much emphasis on headline results.
“We have consistently cautioned against an overemphasis on the headline pass rate that chases quantity over quality.
“The grade 10 to 12 dropout problem remains the biggest pressure point in the system, and it directly affects opportunity, fairness and long-term outcomes,” he said.
On the suspension of principals and teachers, Hendricks said action over allegations of misconduct should not be delayed for administrative convenience.
“Allegations of financial misconduct and sexual offences are extremely serious and must be acted on immediately.
“Accountability cannot be delayed for convenience, and learner safety must always come first,” he said.
“However, the department cannot use these suspensions as an explanation for performance pressures reflected in the results now being released.
“A functional education system must be able to manage discipline without destabilising learners, and learners should never pay the price for adult misconduct or weak contingency planning.”
Women’s and children’s rights activist Dr Lesley Ann Foster said she did not believe the suspension of teachers accused of sexual misconduct had negatively affected exam outcomes.
“If the educators were kept at schools, victims would suffer more and that would have a bad impact on their results,” Foster said.
“Having those educators at school does have an impact on the capacity of those learners to study and achieve.
“It’s a minimal decline, but I think it needs a deeper analysis. I think issues of poverty, inequality and food security are the main drivers of this decline,” she said.
Daily Dispatch
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.