Poland Central Examination Board reports 87% pass rate for 2026 Matura exams

Overall results and candidate participation

The Central Examination Board (CKE) released the final results for the 2026 secondary school leaving examination on Friday. The official data incorporates outcomes from the primary May exam period, the additional June session, and the August retake exams. Across all secondary school tracks, 87% of graduating students passed the examination and received their maturity certificate. Candidate volumes reached 322,859 graduates during the May and June exam dates, with another 33,979 graduates sitting for retakes in August. General secondary school graduates achieved a higher overall pass rate than technical secondary school graduates, recording 90.7% compared to 79.8%.

Performance across mandatory written subjects

In the mandatory written subjects, the Polish language exam saw an overall pass rate of 95.3%, with general high school students achieving 96.6% and technical school students reaching 92.9%. Mathematics recorded an overall pass rate of 88.9%, with 91.7% passing among high school graduates compared to 83.5% among technical school candidates. English, the most widely chosen modern foreign language, finished with an overall pass rate of 95.5%, comprising 97.1% in general high schools and 92.5% in technical schools. Other written modern foreign language exams recorded pass rates of 93% for German, 92.3% for Russian, 97.9% for French, 96.8% for Spanish, 94% for Italian, and 98.2% for Ukrainian.

Oral examinations and national minority language testing

Oral examination pass rates remained high across all tested subjects and school types. The oral Polish language examination recorded an overall pass rate of 99.1%, including 99.3% in general secondary schools and 98.6% in technical schools. Oral English exams concluded with a 98.8% pass rate, consisting of 99.2% for general high schools and 98% for technical schools. French and Ukrainian modern foreign language oral exams reached a 100% pass rate across both school types. For national minority languages, the Belarusian exam recorded a 98.9% written pass rate and a 100% oral pass rate, while Ukrainian national minority exams reached 100% in both written and oral formats.

Examination stability and difficulty standards

CKE director Robert Zakrzewski addressed the results in comments to the Polish Press Agency, explaining that the outcome reflects consistent exam standards.

The results are repeatable, which means the examination is stable. This means that the difficulty of the matura exams was exactly the same as last year and in previous years. This is important when a young person tries to enter university in subsequent years without retaking their exam, so they have equal chances with graduates from other cohorts, because their knowledge and skills were tested with a tool comparable across subsequent years.

Zakrzewski noted that task authors and reviewers rely on research and experience to maintain an equivalent level of task execution each year. He explained that questions must change each year because test papers are made public immediately after completion in response to public demand.