The Western Cape is gearing up for the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, with 77,442 candidates registered to write across the province.
Western Cape Education MEC David Maynier said this year, 67,606 full-time matric candidates will sit for the exams, alongside 9,836 part-time or repeat candidates.
“We have 3,231 more full-time candidates writing than in 2024,” he said.
Exams begin on Tuesday, October 21, with 12,736 candidates taking the Computer Applications Technology (CAT) Practical exam in the morning. In total, 112 examination papers will be written, concluding on November 26.
Maynier highlighted that Mathematical Literacy remains the most popular subject, with 53 206 candidates scheduled to write Paper 1 on October 31, and Paper 2 on November 3.
On the other hand, Sesotho First Additional Language and Setswana Home Language each have only a single candidate in the province.
“The implementation of the exams is a mammoth administrative exercise,” MEC Maynier said.
Candidates will write at 473 exam centres, monitored by 2 046 trained invigilators. Marking will begin in early December, with 954 000 examination scripts assessed by 4 190 markers.
The national minister will announce the national and provincial pass rates on Monday, January 12, 2026, with individual candidate results released the following day.
MEC Maynier praised the dedication of exam officials and teachers.
“We appreciate the incredible work that our examination officials do each year to ensure that the exams run smoothly. Our matrics and their teachers have also put in a tremendous amount of work to prepare for these exams, so we appeal to everyone in our province to put the best interests of our candidates first during the exam period.”
He concluded with words of encouragement for the candidates.
“We wish our candidates all the best for the final days of revision, and look forward to celebrating with them when the results are released!”
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