The Untold Story: Behind KZN’s historic 2025 90.6% matric pass rate

Education stakeholders have detailed the many sacrifices and interventions made, including teachers having to sleep at school, that led to KwaZulu-Natal being crowned the best performer in the country in the 2025 National Senior Certificate results.

Education stakeholders spoke to The Mercury yesterday about the practical initiatives implemented by schools that enabled the country’s most rural province to surpass the Free State to clinch the top spot and a 90.6% pass rate.

They noted that in some schools, principals and teachers went as far as sleeping at schools during camps to ensure learners were supported. Department officials, members of the education portfolio committee, and school principals praised the collaboration between pupils, teachers, and parents, saying it has been fundamental to the province's consistent improvement.

Emmanuel Duma, principal of Sibusisiwe Comprehensive Technical High School in uMbumbulu, emphasised that discipline among pupils, teachers, and parents is central to the performance of schools.

“The reason the province has achieved this success is thanks to the discipline shown by the parents, the teachers, and the pupils towards their schoolwork.”

His school achieved a 100 percent pass rate for the third consecutive year.

“For instance, if I call a meeting with the parents today, they will be here at 3pm;that is the commitment they are showing to the school. The teachers in the school teach with great enthusiasm. The pupils of the school are present every time they are supposed to be at school.

“The leadership of the school, through the school management team (SMT), leads by example. As a school principal, I cannot expect other teachers to be at school on Saturday while I am spending time with my family or at home; the SMT leads by example. We implement a lot of programmes; we know that we have to keep the children at school for longer periods, including morning classes, weekend classes, and afternoon classes, to ensure that we maintain focus.

“We intervene where necessary, adhere to our schedule, release results on time, conduct revision work as planned, and stick to the programme we are supposed to follow,” he said.

Sakhile Mngadi, a member of the Edu-cation Portfolio Committee, remarked that they had witnessed firsthand the sacrifices made for this success.

“It is important to state clearly that these results are first and foremost the achievement of teachers, learners, and local school-based staff who put in the work under extremely difficult conditions.

They are the ones who carried the system, often without adequate resources, and they deserve the credit.

“What these results demonstrate is the resilience of our learners, especially those in rural and disadvantaged communities, and the commitment of educators who refuse to allow circumstances to determine outcomes. During our oversight work as a committee, we saw very practical interventions on the ground. These included focused learner support programmes, subject-specific interventions, revision and catch-up camps, and strong leadership from principals.”

Mngadi said that in some schools, principals and teachers went as far as sleeping at schools during camps to ensure learners were supported, supervised, and able to focus fully on their work. "That level of dedication made a real difference," he said.

Acting chairperson of the Education Portfolio Committee, Hlengiwe Mavimbela, said the commitment of the school leadership cannot be under emphasised.

“Throughout our oversight visits to schools and our interaction with the leadership of the department, we were assured that the focus was on first-class ‘trophy’ results, and this was demonstrated by hard work, patience, and commitment, which today yielded the positive results we have witnessed.”

She added that the teacher unions must be commended for playing a part in producing the sterling work.

“Without their collaboration and the commitment of their members in class-rooms, we would not have produced these results.”

She commended their efforts and challenged them to continue and keep the province in the leading position even in 2026.

Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka saidthe province is focused on achieving more:“What makes KwaZulu-Natal’s resultsremarkable is that the quality comes fromthe ground,” Hlomuka said.

“It comes from schools facing infra-structure challenges in various districts of the province. It comes from schools that lack resources.” Despite these constraints, he noted that educators and learners remained committed. “We have limited resources, but our educators and learners are committed,” he said.

“The quality of our results continued to improve across the board; this is a reflection of the interventions by our district teams and educators, as well as the dedication of our learners to their academic work.

“Our bachelor passes have increased from 84,470 in 2024 to 89,161 in 2025. This is one of the key indicators of the depth of this academic achievement. We will continue with efforts to improve the quality of our results, especially in gateway subjects like Mathematics and Physical Sciences.”

THE MERCURY