David Maynier (Western Cape Minister of Education) and Matric students at Silikamva High School on January 13, 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa. The celebration follows the release of the 2025 NSC results in which Silikamva High School achieved 100 percent pass rate. Picture: Gallo Images/ER Lombard The 2025 matric results announcement was a national moment of recognition for young people who have carried the weight of expectation, disruption and inequality for more than a decade.
As South Africa celebrated an 88% national pass rate, the highest in our history, there was joy, pride and relief. But celebration alone is not enough. As someone who works in, researches and writes about education, I felt a deep pride in the Class of 2025 and a renewed sense of responsibility to speak honestly about what these results reveal and what they still conceal.
Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube’s address resisted the easy narrative of triumph. Instead, it invited us to see matric not as a finish line, but as a mirror. What it reflects back is both progress and unfinished work.
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There is no denying the gains. More pupils passed matric in 2025 than before. All provinces for the first time in our history achieved pass rates above 80%.
Pupils from no-fee schools continue to increase their share of bachelor passes, reminding us that excellence is not the preserve of wealth. In township and rural schools, resilience is no longer the exception, it is becoming a pattern. For many families, this moment will change a generational story.
A matric certificate is still a powerful symbol in South Africa, not only of academic completion, but of survival, persistence and hope. We should never minimise that. And yet, if we are honest, the most important message in the results celebrations was not found in the final percentage. The minister was clear that the greatest injustice in our education system begins in early childhood, in the foundation phase, and in whether a child can read for meaning by the age of 10.
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