About Us / Introduction to the International Secondary Certificate
A series of changes in respect of offering of the National Senior Certificate - the South African school-leaving qualification - outside the borders of South Africa has given rise to the need for the IEB to extend its activities to educational institutions and students in countries outside the country.   

To this end, the IEB has developed a qualification, comparable locally and globally to existing qualifications that mark successful achievement at the end of secondary education and furthermore, in many cases, determine successful achievement to qualify for entrance to tertiary study.  

The qualification is called the IEB International Secondary Certificate (IEB-ISC) and serves students in the senior secondary phase of their education – 15 to 16 year-old students, commencing with their 10th year of schooling.   The qualification marks the end of formal schooling and is awarded to successful students. 

The qualification will be offered through educational institutions, recognised by the IEB, to students across countries outside South Africa at schools registered by the IEB or via distance education institutions, registered by the IEB for this purpose. In this context, the term “International” is used in its meaning of “in a number of different countries”.