Matric Exams 2025
1Min
Johannesburg
Oct 15, 2025
Umalusi has strengthened security and readiness for the 2025 matric exams starting Tuesday. CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi said all issues were minor and resolved to protect exam integrity. Over one million candidates are registered, with measures in place to address staff shortages and ensure a smooth assessment process.
Umalusi has on Wednesday announced that security measures have been tightened ahead of the 2025 matric exams, which were scheduled to start next week Tuesday.
Umalusi Chief Executive Officer, Dr Mafu Rakometsi, said in a briefing in Pretoria that the system is ready for the conduct, administration and management of the 2025 end of year national examinations.
“The highlighted areas of concerns are not systemic and therefore will not put the overall credibility and integrity of the 2025 examinations in jeopardy. All the concerns have been brought to the attention of the relevant Heads of Department in the provinces and the Directors-General of the DBE and DHET, the CEOs of the IEB and SACAI for the corrective actions to be taken before the start of examinations,” said Rakometsi.
Umalusi Senior Manager for Quality Assurance Dr Mary-Antoinette Dliwayo that all protocols were being followed to ensure the exam’s integrity. Over one million candidates were registered to write this year’s National Senior Certificate and other end of year assessments.
Dliwayo said the Department of Basic Education’s 766,543 excludes the 137,018 part-time (out of school) candidates who will sit the examination to improve their results achieved in previous examination sittings.
“So, taken together, the numbers show that the DBE’s full-time and part-time candidates amount to 903,561. All the NSC candidates have been issued with examination admission letters.”
Dliwayo raised concerns over a shortage of marking staff. However, it expressed confidence in the readiness of public and private assessment bodies to conduct the end of the year assessments.
She said Umalusi has identified a shortage of markers in certain of the DBE’s subjects, namely History and Paper 3 for Home and First Additional Languages. Based on the reports submitted, Umalusi is satisfied that the DBE’s strategies in place, which include additional recruitment drives, early start of marking and extending the duration of the marking period in the subjects concerned, will ensure that these gaps were bridged by the time the marking of scripts starts.
Dliwayo emphasised that the challenges in relation to the shortage of exam script assessors will not affect the scheduled marking dates. All the markers appointed across the four assessment bodies will be trained prior to the commencement of marking.
The marking process will unfold in a staggered manner commencing on 15 November and ending on 18 December 2025. Umalusi will monitor the implementation of a staggered marking approach to ensure that the process is not compromised.
Dliwayo said that the outcomes of the audit process have confirmed that the mark capturing systems used by each of the four assessment bodies were compliant with the requirements of Umalusi.
