Eastern Cape Chases 85% Matric Pass Rate Despite Performance Slump

The Eastern Cape Department of Education has set an 85% target for the Class of 2026 despite a decline in quarter three from 83.9% in 2025 to 82%, according to Education MEC, Fundile Gade.

Gade was speaking at the matric exam pledge signing ceremony in Komani on Friday (October 9), using his speech to unpack his department's readiness to administer the final exams across the province.

He said the department cannot successfully administer matric examinations on its own -- as support and interventions from various sector partners and strategic stakeholders is required.

He said he expected the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to be available to assist if communities decide to disrupt the examination period in order to complain about service delivery and related matters.

Another expectation is for the Departments of Social Development and Health to always be ready to offer support to those children, who are psychologically and emotionally not ready for the exams.

Some of the learners are coming from homes where parents are going through divorce. Others are dealing with Gender Based Violence and Femicide and drug-related incidents at home or in the community. All this will reflect in the exam room, argued Gade.

"Are the kids ready psychologically and emotionally to write the exams? If not, what is the attitude of the Departments of Social Development and Health on that? If we have huge numbers of kids moving out of exam rooms with anxiety, who are the experts to deal with that?” Gade asked.

He revealed that learner enrolment numbers increased steadily from 101 338 in 2024 to 110 511 in 2026, representing an overall growth of 9.1%.

The province recorded an improvement in the matric pass rate from 82.3% in 2024 to 83.9% in 2025. However, Gade said, the 2026 Quarter Three performance stood at 82.0%, representing a 1.9 percentage-point decline compared to the same period in 2025.

“The trend indicates that, although learner enrolment continued to increase, the performance gains achieved in 2025 were not sustained in 2026.

This underscores the need for targeted and evidence-based interventions, particularly in areas where learner performance has declined, to recover the lost ground and ensure sustained improvement in educational outcomes.”

Gade said the 2026 class has the largest number of progressed learners, increasing from 8 500 in 2025 to 9 270 in 2026.

In 2026, 19 schools are offering Grade 12 for the first time, representing more than 1 200 learners. These schools require additional support to ensure that learners and educators are adequately prepared for the demands of the National Senior Certificate examination.

The education department had programmes to support its matrics, including extended programmes, weekend classes, autumn vacation classes, winter vacation classes and spring vacation classes.

The department remains confident of reaching its 85% pass target for the class of 2026. Preparations for the 2026 final examinations commenced as early as March 2026, beginning with the registration of both full-time and part-time candidates.

For the 2026 academic year, the department has registered 112 634 full-time candidates and 15 032 part-time candidates. The department has 983 centres across the province with 909 ordinary public schools, 53 independent schools, 11 special schools, three prisons and 125 part-time facilities.

The department procured 17 800 calculators, which have been delivered to schools, in addition to the 7 000 calculators delivered in 2025. This is to support learners taking mathematics, sciences and business, commerce and management subjects.

“These are just some of the interventions that made the province to drastically improve maths from 63% to 70% this quarter. You will remember that maths is a critical subject in our country and any improvements make for a major difference in our performance.

"The national target is 65% and we are at 70%. We are a maths and science province, the results of the province depend on the performance systems in maths and science.

"Remember the country has a shortage of skills, would like to diversify its economic streams and we are currently dealing with immigrants, who are also competing for jobs in our country.

"These issues will have an impact on how the public service will function in the next five to ten years. We must prepare for those changes in the classroom," Gade said.

Psychosocial support teams have already visited districts and schools during the trial examinations to provide support, assess emerging needs and strengthen their readiness to respond during the final examinations.

“The fact that we have a majority of people that are unemployable now is as a result of how the schooling system has been structured in the past. We cannot continue with that.

"We will have to review some strategies and knock sense in the person walking in the street that degrees must be pursued that can lead to job opportunities.

"While targeting a 100% pass rate, we must also produce quality learners."

Gade said 22 psychologists, 500 learner support agents and 49 social workers are in place to support the matric class of 2026. Learners also have access to a toll-free support line 080 1212 570.