With less than a week to go before the start of the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has announced that 77,442 candidates have been enrolled to write the exams.

Of these, 67,606 are full-time matric candidates, while 9,836 are part-time or repeat candidates. Compared to 2024, 3,231 more full-time candidates are writing this year.

The exams kick off on Tuesday, 21 October, with a total of 12,736 candidates writing the Computer Applications Technology (CAT) Practical exam in the morning.

A marathon NSC exam timetable lies ahead, with 112 exam papers to be written by the time the exams end on 26 November.

As in previous years, the subject with the largest number of candidates is Mathematical Literacy, with 53,206 candidates writing Paper 1 on Friday, 31 October, and Paper 2 on Monday, 3 November.

Two subjects have just ONE candidate writing in the Western Cape: Sesotho First Additional Language and Setswana Home Language.

The implementation of the exams is a mammoth administrative exercise.

• Candidates will write at 473 exam centres, with 2,046 trained invigilators appointed to keep a close eye on proceedings.
• Marking will take place at the beginning of December, with 954,000 examination scripts being marked by 4,190 markers.

The National Minister of Education will announce the national and provincial pass rates on Monday, 12 January 2026, and candidates will receive their individual results the following day.

Western Cape Education MEC David Maynier has expressed his appreciation for the work that provincial examination officials do each year to ensure that the exams run smoothly.

“Our matrics and their teachers have also put in a tremendous amount of work to prepare for these exams, so we appeal to everyone in our province to put the best interests of our candidates first during the exam period. We wish our candidates all the best for the final days of revision, and look forward to celebrating with them when the results are released!”

2025 NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE (NSC) OCTOBER/NOVEMBER EXAMINATIONS TIMETABLE:

READ: SADAG Urges Matrics to Seek Support Ahead of Final Exams