Matric results reflect progress and unfinished work

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. 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.

ALSO READ: Fewer dropouts, steadier ground: Why the 2025 matric results offer cautious hope for SA’s schools

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.

By the time pupils reach matric, the outcomes we celebrate, or lament, have often already been decided. She offered the story of Lindiwe and Sipho, two 10 year olds with vastly different learning foundations.

One enters school ready to learn, supported by early childhood education, books, nutrition and language-rich environments. The other does not.

Neither lacks potential, but only one is structurally supported to realise it. By matric, the gap between them feels inevitable.

For decades, South Africa focused on expanding access to schooling. But access without quality is not equality.

Progression without mastery is not opportunity and the Class of 2025 reminds us that we can no longer afford to confuse movement through the system with meaningful learning.

The data itself tells a sobering story. Only 34% of candidates wrote mathematics in 2025. While enrolment in gateway subjects has begun to grow, performance in mathematics and accounting declined.

This is a systems warning. Expanding participation without strengthening early foundations simply shifts risk forward.

ALSO READ: Matric results record questioned as experts highlight hidden dropout crisis

What encouraged me most in the minister’s address was the clarity of direction. The emphasis on early childhood care and education, early-grade reading, mother-tongue bilingual education, teacher development and pupil well-being signals a long-overdue shift from reactive crisis management to structural reform.

Registering over 12 000 early childhood development centres in a single year, expanding access to subsidies, investing in early-grade reading through evidence-based approaches and strengthening the conditions in foundation phase classrooms are not headline-friendly interventions.

But they are the kind of work that actually changes outcomes slowly, unevenly and sustainably. Equally important was the minister’s acknowledgement that education does not exist in isolation from social conditions.

Pupils receiving social grants performed better than those whose grants lapsed after turning 18. There was also an honesty in confronting what celebration can obscure.

Pupil retention is a critical challenge, particularly between Grades 10 and 12. Where higher performance coincides with lower retention, we must ask hard questions, not to assign blame, but to protect opportunity.

A strong system is not one that produces impressive statistics; it is one that keeps pupils in the system and supports them early enough to succeed meaningfully.

Let us understand what this moment demands of us. It demands that we stop treating matric as the primary measure of the education system’s health.

It demands that we invest earlier, teach better, support more consistently and protect learning time. It demands that we judge success not only by who passes, but by who is truly prepared to thrive beyond the school gate.

NOW READ: Mashatile encourages matrics to take advantage of government-supported opportunities