Security stepped up ahead of 2025 matric exams: Umalusi

Umalusi Senior Manager for Quality Assurance Dr Mary-Antoinette Dliwayo briefs the media in Pretoria on October 15, 2025.

Education quality assurance body, Umalusi, says security measures have been tightened ahead of the 2025 matric exams, which are scheduled to start next week Tuesday.

The council says printing and storage of papers is underway and that all protocols are being followed to ensure the exam’s integrity.

Over one million candidates are registered to write this year’s National Senior Certificate and other end of year assessments.

Umalusi Senior Manager for Quality Assurance Dr Mary-Antoinette Dliwayo briefed the media in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Dliwayo says, “The numbers given in the table above show that the NSC accounts for the largest share of the total candidature. The DBE’s (Department of Basic Education) 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.”

She says, “ 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 also 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 says, “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 are 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.

She says, “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.”