Umalusi Chairperson Professor Yunus Ballim says the quality assurance body is satisfied with the manner and integrity with which the 2025 matric examinations were conducted.
Ballim says Umalusi is confident that the matric results, which will be officially released by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube on Monday, were not compromised and remain credible.
Umalusi was briefing members of the media in Pretoria on a range of issues, including the assessment and standards of matric and higher education examinations, as well as criminal acts related to exam breaches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFbejsVK9tI
Umalusi has reported that the 2025 matric exams were conducted in more than 300 subjects across approximately 9 400 examination centres.
Over one million candidates sat for the examinations, distributed among four assessment bodies and four qualifications.
Ballim states that National Senior Certificate (NSC) candidates accounted for 90.3% of the total.
“Umalusi Council congratulates all the assessment bodies for successfully conducting, administering and managing the 2025 end-of-year examinations. As evidenced by the numbers presented, the examination system is large and complex. I want to repeat what we have said before it is not an easy task to ensure that each one of the over 1 million candidates across the over 9 400 examination centres receives the correct question paper at the right time and in the correct venue, individual scripts are collected and marked, marks are verified before being transferred onto the computer systems and submitted to Umalusi for standardisation purposes, standardisation decisions are implemented on the system and that learners are resulted in a timely manner.”
WATCH | According to Umalusi, a total of 927,000 students took the NSC exams in 2025, making it one of the largest cohorts in recent years. pic.twitter.com/WXx8Us7TOG
— SABC News (@SABCNews) January 9, 2026
Appreciation
Umalusi CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi has expressed appreciation to community members for their cooperation in allowing the 2025 matric examinations to proceed without disruption.
He also thanked teachers, examiners, moderators, examination monitors and marking verifiers for their role in ensuring the effective implementation of Umalusi’s quality assurance framework throughout the examination process.
N3 certificates
Rakometsi has confirmed that 2025 is the final year in which the examination quality assurance body will issue N3 certificates.
This follows a 2023 Government Gazette issued by the Department of Higher Education and Training, which formally announced the phasing out of the N3 qualification.
Rakometsi says the decision is part of a broader reform of the post-school education and training system, aimed at streamlining qualifications and eliminating outdated certificated pathways that no longer align with current skills development requirements.
WATCH | Umalusi, the education quality council, has confirmed it will stop issuing N3 certificates from January 2026. pic.twitter.com/ZxiPclmqTo
— SABC News (@SABCNews) January 9, 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oU-1DeKT5c
