Gauteng's biggest matric class ever starts writing: 203,794 candidates, 27 marking centres, armed escorts for papers
The province will monitor every one of its examination centres, above the national 70% requirement, as the first papers are written on Tuesday.
Gauteng’s largest matric cohort in the province’s history starts writing on Tuesday.
A total of 203,794 candidates are registered for the 2026 National Senior Certificate examinations, which run from October 13 to November 26. The figure is the first time a Gauteng cohort has passed 200,000, and it is 11,049 more than the 192,745 who registered in 2025.
As Sunday World reported on 12 October, Education MEC Lebogang Maile confirmed the numbers at a media briefing on Monday. The cohort is made up of 152,527 full-time learners and 51,267 part-time and repeat candidates.
The department attributes the growth to Gauteng’s rising population and learner numbers, and to what it describes as confidence in the quality of the province’s schooling. Those are the department’s own explanations. The exam itself is now the test.
What the record number means in practice is a logistics operation: enough venues, enough invigilators, enough monitors, question papers that arrive where they should and stay sealed until they should not, and scripts that get marked and captured on time.
Gauteng has set its monitoring target at 100% of examination centres, against a national requirement of 70%. “The Gauteng provincial target remains 100% monitoring coverage, exceeding the national requirement of 70%,” Maile said.
Extra personnel will go to high-risk sites. Monitoring covers examination administration, candidate seating, identity document checks, the storage and distribution of question papers and the handling of examination materials. It does not stop when the writing stops. Monitors will also be deployed to marking centres to watch marking reliability, adherence to national marking guidelines, mark capturing and results processing, and will file continuous compliance reports to provincial regulators, district offices and the department.
Twenty-seven marking centres have been identified and audited, and the appointment of 14,800 marking personnel is under way. The department is targeting 12 January 2027 for the release of the results.
Security has been tightened at printing facilities, storage points and distribution centres. Question papers will move under armed security escort, with strict access controls, surveillance systems and real-time reporting. Super scanners will be used at examination room entrances to detect concealed electronic devices, among them smart glasses, spy pens with hidden recording capabilities and micro-earpieces. The department says the scanners are there to protect the integrity of the examinations rather than to invade learners’ privacy, and that candidates have been briefed on the sanctions for irregularities: nullified results, delays in completing matric and exclusion from up to three future examination cycles, depending on severity.
“Cheating has no place in our examination system,” Maile said.
On 9 October, schools across the province held pledge-signing ceremonies where candidates committed to the examination code of conduct.
For a candidate in this cohort, the run-up has included more than the usual classroom teaching. The department has rolled out the Secondary School Improvement Programme for priority and underperforming high schools, supporting Grades 8 to 12 with intensive help for matriculants in mathematics, mathematical literacy, physical sciences, life sciences, accounting, English First Additional Language, economics, business studies, history and geography. It provides Saturday classes, holiday lessons, examination preparation camps, tutoring, learning materials and digital resources, and in some cases catering and transport. The High Flyer Programme targets top-performing Grade 12 learners chasing distinctions and Bachelor passes. The Just in Time initiative trains teachers shortly before they teach particular concepts. Academic support continues during the examination period through daily revision ahead of individual papers.
Gauteng is working from a strong base. The province recorded an 89.1% matric pass rate in 2025, its highest at the time and third nationally, with 67,861 Bachelor passes, or 48.15% of candidates who wrote. All 15 districts passed above 83%. Johannesburg West led at 96.20%, Gauteng East was lowest at 83.70%, and independent schools achieved 94.82%. That is five consecutive years of improvement since 2021. Whether the record cohort extends the run will only be known in January.
Maile also asked parents, guardians and communities to give learners room to prepare, through the department’s It Takes a Village to Raise a Child initiative, and urged families not to load candidates with household responsibilities. Communities were asked not to block roads leading to schools or obstruct school entrances during the examination period. A candidate prevented from writing a paper by such a disruption could have to wait for the June 2027 examination opportunity, delaying the move into higher education and training.
“We all have an obligation to help, support, and nurture our children during this stressful process,” Maile said. He encouraged candidates to limit social media use during the examinations, warning that online activity could affect their mental and emotional wellbeing.
The first paper is written on Tuesday.
