Polish matura pass rate climbs to 81.1% in 2026 results

Poland’s Ministry of Education has released preliminary results for the 2026 matura examination, reporting that 81.1 percent of graduates from upper secondary schools passed the national leaving exam. The figures, published this week by the Central Examination Board (Centralna Komisja Egzaminacyjna), cover the May 2026 sitting and offer the first official snapshot of how this year’s cohort performed across the country’s mandatory and elective subjects.

Under Poland’s matura framework, students must pass a set of compulsory written exams — typically Polish, mathematics and a modern foreign language — at a minimum threshold of 30 percent, with any subject scoring below that mark counted as a failed attempt. According to the ministry, 12.3 percent of this year’s candidates failed exactly one compulsory exam, automatically qualifying them for the August retake window. That pathway allows students to resit a single failed subject without losing credit for the exams they have already cleared, a structure that has been in place for several examination cycles.

The remaining share of unsuccessful candidates — those who fell short on two or more mandatory subjects, or who did not meet the threshold across their elective profile — face a more significant hurdle. Those students cannot proceed to the August resit and must instead wait until the following year’s main sitting to retake the full set of required exams, effectively losing a year before becoming eligible for university admission.

The Central Examination Board indicated that the preliminary data covers the standard written components administered in May. Oral and practical examinations, including those for modern languages at the advanced level, are typically tallied separately and published in supplementary statistical releases later in the summer. Final confirmed results, including detailed breakdowns by subject, region and school type, are expected to follow once the August retake session has concluded and any successful appeals have been processed.

Education officials in Warsaw noted that year-on-year comparisons should be treated with caution at this preliminary stage, as the August results can shift the overall pass rate by a meaningful margin. Historical patterns suggest that candidates who fail only one compulsory subject and sit the August resit have a relatively high conversion rate, often pushing the final pass figure above the May preliminary number once the second window closes.

The matura remains the principal gateway to higher education in Poland, and its results carry significant weight for universities setting admission thresholds for the autumn intake. Detailed subject-level data published in previous years has shown persistent variation between voivodeships, with urban centres and academically selective schools typically outperforming the national average, while rural and vocational-track institutions tend to cluster closer to — and sometimes below — the mean.

For international observers, the matura statistics are also a useful proxy for shifts in the Polish secondary system, which has undergone a series of curriculum reforms over the past decade. Changes to the weighting of extended-level subjects, adjustments to the Polish language syllabus and ongoing debate over the role of mathematics as a compulsory component have all influenced cohort performance in recent cycles.

Candidates who sat the May exam and are awaiting their individual certificates have been advised to check the dedicated student portal operated by the Central Examination Board, where personalised result sheets are typically made available within days of the ministry’s preliminary announcement. Students who believe a marking error may have occurred retain the right to request a formal review of their scripts within a defined window after results are issued.

The ministry has not yet announced the exact date for the August retake session, though it traditionally falls in the second half of the month. Once those results are processed, the Central Examination Board will publish a consolidated statistical report covering both the May and August sittings, providing the definitive picture of the 2026 matura cohort.

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