Top-performing matric pupils from across the Eastern Cape were honoured at the province’s 2025 matric awards ceremony held at the East London International Convention Centre on Tuesday.
The ceremony followed the release of the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results on Monday by basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube.
Four pupils from the province were selected by Gwarube as her special guests at the national NSC awards ceremony for outstanding performance.
They were Maria Caitlin Freercks from Collegiate Girls’ High School in Nelson Mandela Bay, Emma Caroline Booyens from Clarendon Girls’ High School in Buffalo City, Ngazibini Unathi Ntungwa from Sikhoba Nombewe Senior Secondary School in the Chris Hani East district and Sesona Masingili from Soqhayisa Senior Secondary School in Nelson Mandela Bay.
All 12 districts achieved pass rates above 80%.
Clarendon Girls’ High School pupil Emma, who achieved eight distinctions, said consistency had been key to her success.
“I made sure to work very hard at the beginning of the year, to be very consistent and to stay on top of everything,” she said.
I made sure to work very hard at the beginning of the year, to be very consistent and to stay on top of everything,
“I tried not to get too stressed and to remain calm, while also focusing on studying and participating in other activities such as sport.”
Emma plans to further her studies at Stellenbosch University, where she hopes to pursue medicine.
Her schoolmate, Danel Muller, who also achieved eight distinctions, said steady preparation had helped her.
“I prepared myself by doing a little bit consistently so that it added up in the end. I kept up with my notes, asked questions and did a lot of past papers to prepare myself,” she said.
Science College pupil Mihlali Kolo, who achieved seven distinctions, said she was the first pupil from her school to be selected for a provincial award.
“I started studying my grade 12 content when I was in grade 11 so that I was ahead of my teacher,” she said.
“What also helped was helping my peers with some of their work — it made me understand better,” she said.
Mihlali hopes to study medicine at the University of Cape Town.
Though the Eastern Cape recorded a slight decline of 0.7 percentage points in its overall NSC pass rate, from 84.9% in 2024 to 84.2% in 2025, education MEC Fundile Gade said he remained optimistic.
Gade said the number of bachelor’s passes had declined slightly, from 45.78% in 2024 to 41.54% in 2025.
“In real terms, this means a decline from 45,662 to 44,267 learners who obtained a bachelor’s pass in 2025,” Gade said.
“However, over the period from 2021 to 2025, the Eastern Cape has produced 194,185 bachelor’s passes.”
He said there had been an improvement in the number of distinctions over the past five years.
“Year-on-year improvement has scaled up from 3.6% in 2021 to 4.37% in 2025,” Gade said.
He said the province was aiming to reach a 90% pass rate by the end of the current administration.
Gade said the writing, marking and release of results had been conducted with a high level of credibility and integrity.
The examinations took place over six weeks, spanning about 44 weekdays.
A total of 53 subjects were written, 163 question papers were set, and more than 1.5-million scripts were marked by 6,822 markers at 25 marking centres.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane congratulated the class of 2025, praising their perseverance and commitment.
Daily Dispatch
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