By Lwazi Raul-Shongwe
The Mpumalanga Department of Education has confirmed that the province is fully prepared for the National Senior Certificate exams which commenced on 21 October 2025.
The MEC for Education, addressing the media at Shabalala Secondary School in the White-Hazy Circuit(under the City of Mbombela) on Thursday 23 October 2025, assured that all necessary measures are in place to ensure the smooth conduct of the exams.
The MEC confirmed that learners are well-prepared and that teachers and invigilators are also ready to facilitate the exams. She said learners have signed a pledge on 17 October 2025, committing to abide by the rules of the examination.
“As the province, I can confirm and assure all our communities that we are very much ready. Our leaners are sitting for the examination, and I can confirm that all of them are in their centres today preparing to start their first paper(English Paper 3),” said MEC Masina.
Responding to the question of community protests in some areas, including Tonga, where unrest had been ongoing for three days, the MEC assured that the DCSSL(Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison) is on the ground to prevent any disruptions to the exams.
According to Masina, the Department is equal to the task of ensuring that the examinations are incident-free, and run smoothly without any hinderances.
“ So far, we are confident that all our learners will start without any disruption, but if there should be any(disruption) subsystems are in place to make sure that they do not disturb our learners,” said the MEC.
The MEC highlighted the various learner-support programs implemented by the Department, including Spring and Winter classes, camps, and teacher support.
The Department had also reportedly organised visits to schools to motivate learners and prayer sessions were held in the districts, as well as provincially, for an incident-free examination period.
“ We still believe that as a province we have been carrying that reputation for the past 14 years without any incident, and we are praying that this examination is also incident-free. We also believe that our learners are firm, focused and ready for the examination,” said MEC Masina.
