HSC 2025: Pass rate hits 21-year low
A review of past results highlights the magnitude of the decline while the pass rate had generally trended higher in recent years, reaching 77.78% in 2024
The average pass rate for the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations in 2025 has registered the lowest percentage in the last two decades, with nearly 5,08,701 students failing to clear the exams.
The results, published simultaneously across all education boards this morning (16 October), show that the national average pass rate across the 11 education boards — nine general, Madrasah, and Technical — stood at 58.83%. This figure marks the lowest success rate recorded since 2004, when the pass rate was 47.74%.
A review of past results highlights the magnitude of the decline.
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The pass rate had generally trended higher in recent years, reaching 77.78% in 2024.
In review, 20 years ago, in 2004, the pass rate in higher secondary was 47.74%. The following year, in 2005, the pass rate was approximately 59%. That year, some 5,509 students got a GPA-5.
The following year, the pass rate in higher secondary was 65.65%. In 2006, some 9,868 students got GPA-5. In 2007, the pass rate was 64.27%.
Between 2008 and 2018, the HSC pass rate fluctuated. In 2012, the highest number of students passed was 76.5%. On the other hand, in 2018, the pass rate dropped to 64.55% — the lowest in these 12 years.
However, the pass rate started inching up again from the following year of 2019 when it reached to 73.93%.
The HSC exam was not held in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic. After that, the pass rate was 95.3% in 2021, 85.9% in 2022, 75.9% in 2023, and most recently 77.78% in 2024.
