IN SEVEN days, the matric final exams kicks off and the KZN Department of Education says it is confident the class of 2025 is ready.
The department aims for a minimum of 95%, with the ultimate goal being 100%.
In a media briefing held in Durban on Tuesday, 14 October, KZN Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka said they're pleased to announce that the province is prepared for the 2025 National Senior Certificate examinations.
He said this year, 179 751 full-time and 16 148 part-time candidates, making a total of 195 899 pupils, will sit for their final examinations across various exam centres throughout the province.
"This marks a 3% increase compared to the 190 452 candidates who wrote in 2024, reflecting continued growth and commitment of the KZN education system in ensuring every eligible pupil is afforded the opportunity to complete their schooling journey," said Hlomuka.
He said KZN runs the largest exam system in the country, supported by 6 450 invigilators overseeing 6 712 examination rooms across 1 705 public centres and 61 private exam centres.
"Exam materials will be distributed through 13 storage points and 103 distribution and collection centres. KZN will print 113 question papers, totalling 35 192 785 printouts, to be written across 27 morning and 27 afternoon sessions," he said.
The MEC said they began the 2025 academic year encouraged by the outstanding results of the Class of 2024.
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"While we celebrated those achievements, we recognised that our real challenge lay ahead to surpass our own success. We therefore developed a 2025 Academic Improvement Plan, aimed at improving our pass rate from 89,5% to a minimum of 95%, with the ultimate goal of reaching 100%," he said.
He said all 12 districts crafted district-specific improvement plans aligned to the provincial strategy.
"We immediately set these plans into motion to ensure that implementation was felt across all schools. Our provincial vision remains clear, every pupil who sits for the final examination must pass. We know that external factors sometimes make a 100% pass rate difficult, but we are determined not to fall below 95%."
Hlomuka said this would still represent significant growth from 2024.
"To ensure pupil were adequately prepared, we rolled out Winter Programmes and Spring Classes across the province. Our Winter Tuition Programme, which ran from 27 June to 21 July 2025, focused on ensuring full curriculum coverage and intensive learner preparation before the end of August," he said.
He said its key objectives included providing opportunities for pupils to revise and engage with past exam papers.
He said the Spring Boot Camps, held successfully across all 11 districts from 5 to 12 October 2025, benefited more than 4 380 pupils.
"We conducted advocacy and training sessions for Chief Invigilators and Invigilators and employed additional monitors to safeguard examination processes. District core teams trained staff to ensure irregularity-free examinations."
Hlomuka added that a total of 7 889 markers have been appointed, with appointment letters to be issued by end of October 2025. Marking sessions will run from 2 to 12 December 2025 across 32 marking centres.
However, a matric pupil at George Campbel Technical High School in Durban Lonwabo Ndaba (17) said it's through the hard work and by God's grace that he is now heading to write his final exams.
"I'm prepared for the finals because I've been waiting for this moment and preparing for it from the beginning of the year. I'm confident about maths, English and isiZulu as I have been preparing," he said.
Lonwabo believes he'll get good marks he and his parents will be proud of.
The exams will start on 21 October at 9am.
