Examen d'État in DR Congo 2027: papers, dates, results and diplôme d'État

Information checked on 2 November 2026.

The Examen d'État (state exam) is the national exam that ends the humanités (upper secondary school) in DR Congo and gives you the diplôme d'État, the key to university. It is run by the Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship, and you pass with 50% or more. For the 2027 session, the official calendar is already published: preliminary exam on Saturday 13 February 2027, off-session exams from 3 to 18 May, ordinary session from Monday 21 to Thursday 24 June 2027. Here is how the Examen d'État in DRC works, how to read your results, and what your diploma opens up next, at home and abroad.

The Examen d'État in DRC at a glance

The ministry also calls the exam EXETAT on its website. Do not confuse it with the two other certifying exams it runs: the ENAFEP, at the end of primary school, and the TENASOSP, the national selection and guidance test that opens the humanités.

Humanités, sections and options

After basic education (six years of primary school, then two years of terminal cycle), you enter the humanités. The 2014 framework law organises them like this:

The general humanités are divided into sections, themselves divided into options. The official mathematics syllabus of the scientific humanités, published by the ministry in 2021, gives these examples:

The list is not exhaustive: the text adds "etc.", and the technical humanités have their own options. Your option is the one that appears on your diploma and guides your higher education. If you are torn between math-physics and chemistry-biology, the dilemma looks like that of bac C and bac D elsewhere in Africa: our article bac C or bac D, which series to choose helps you think through the career paths.

The Examen d'État papers

The Examen d'État is not played out in a single week. The 2026-2027 school calendar, signed on 26 June 2026, splits it into three stages.

To get your bearings, here is what happened in 2026: the off-session exams took place from Monday 4 to Wednesday 13 May, the ordinary session from 22 to 25 June, and the first results came out on Saturday 27 June.

As for content, the ministry's page on the EXETAT mentions written exams in the main subjects (French, mathematics, history, geography, English), then exams depending on your track: sciences (physics, chemistry, biology) for the scientific tracks, philosophy and economics for the literary tracks, technical exams for the technical tracks. The exact weight of each paper depends on your option: ask your préfet des études (school head of studies) from 5th year on, it should guide your revision time.

The calendar of your final year

Your sixth year starts on Tuesday 1 September 2026 and ends on Friday 2 July 2027. The first-semester exams take place from 9 to 17 February 2027, just before the preliminary exam, and the second-semester ones from 24 May to 1 June 2027, a few weeks before the ordinary session. In other words, between February and June, you will have almost no month without an exam: organise your revision from the start of the school year.

Registration requirements

According to the ministry, to sit the Examen d'État, you must:

• be properly enrolled in the final year, the 6th secondary;
• have attended the 5th and 6th year classes regularly;
• be up to date with school fees;
• meet the required age conditions;
• provide the requested administrative documents (birth certificate, photos…).

Check the spelling of your name, your post-names and your date of birth at registration: they will appear on your diplôme d'État, and this is the diploma that universities, embassies and equivalence services will ask you for.

Results: 50%, a 14-digit code and the electronic diploma

The 50% threshold

In line with the regulations in force, only candidates who get a score equal to or above 50% are declared admitted. The Agence congolaise de presse recalled this in 2025 when it denied a false rumour of a diploma obtained with 38%. It also recalled what a genuine result contains: your unique 14-digit code, your exam centre and your percentage.

Publication, province by province

The ministry publishes the results by educational province, not all at once. In 2026, the first provinces were announced on 27 June, two days after the end of the exams, and the others followed according to an announced calendar. As of 2 November 2026, we found no national pass rate published by the ministry for the 2026 session.

The ministry lists four ways to check your results: online on its platform, at your school, at your exam centre, and by SMS. Its page points to diplome.cd, which shows, as of 2 November 2026, one USSD code per operator:

On the same platform and its mobile app, you log in with your 14-digit code to view, download and share your electronic diploma. Never pay anyone who claims to "check" or "improve" your result.

After the Examen d'État: university in DRC

Higher and university education is open to holders of the diplôme d'État, and it is organised under the LMD system (licence, master, doctorate). Your option matters: a university or a higher institute looks at whether your path in the humanités matches the track you are aiming for.

If you have a very good percentage, look at the national scholarship Excellentia RDC. Its first edition rewarded, on 28 July 2026, 185 winners of the 2026 Examen d'État from 26 provinces. The eligibility threshold was lowered from 85% to 80% at the Examen d'État. The programme is run by the Ministry of Higher and University Education with the Lona Foundation, which organises a national test, and it allows you to study at home or abroad. The Ministry of National Education presents it on its scholarships page.

To weigh the two paths, staying or leaving, read our article after the bac, stay or leave.

Studying abroad with a diplôme d'État

In France: the diplôme d'État first

In DR Congo, Campus France sets a rule that many countries do not have: the diplôme d'État is required to submit an application on Études en France. A sixth-year student must wait for the next campaign. In practice, if you sit the Examen d'État in June 2027, your application will aim at the 2028 intake. Campus France offices, fees and the interview are detailed in our Campus France DRC guide, and the Campus France simulator (in French), free and anonymous, places your file (its thresholds are measured on Beninese candidates: they give only a rough idea for DRC).

In Belgium: an equivalence, with documents specific to DRC

In French-speaking Belgium, the Service des équivalences publishes a special DRC page. For the 2027-2028 intake:

Submission takes place from 15 November 2026 to 15 July 2027, with a €150 fee that is never refunded. The other countries (France, Canada, Germany) are compared in our article on the equivalence of the African bac abroad.

Scholarships for Congolese students

The directory of scholarships for Congolese from DRC (in French) gathers programmes checked on their official sites, with alerts before each deadline. Keep one example that speaks directly your language: for its master's in France, the Ashinaga Foundation asks for more than 75% at the Examen d'État (in French), on top of excellent results in the bachelor's. Your percentage therefore follows you well beyond the announcement.

To see how the Examen d'État compares with the bac of neighbouring countries, read our comparison of the bac in French-speaking Africa.

Revise with past items and with your class

The best preparation is still practising on real papers, under time limits. Our method for revising with past papers offers a schedule for the last months, and it works for the Examen d'État: one subject a day, corrected afterwards, mistakes noted.

On Compatri, the exam archive (in French) gathers the papers submitted by students, reviewed, with no student name, and published at the earliest the day after the exam. It is being built right now: if you have your items from quizzes, semester exams or the preliminary exam, submit them (in French) once the exam is over. Never share a paper before the exam: our article on sharing an exam paper explains the limit.

Also join your class group: one group per class and per city ("6th math-physics, Kinshasa", "6th chemistry-biology, Lubumbashi"), where you can ask questions and mark the best answer. You find the same option there in Goma, Bukavu or Kisangani. And the Congolese diaspora includes volunteer mentors who have made the journey from Kinshasa to Brussels or Paris.

Compatri is not the Ministry of National Education: only its press releases and official results are authoritative.

Official sources

• Framework law no. 14/004 of 11 February 2014 on national education (text published by UNESCO)
• Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship: the EXETAT
• Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship: certifying exams
• Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship: levels of education
• Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship: Inspection générale
• Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship: 2026-2027 school calendar (PDF)
• Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship: scholarships
• Ministry: mathematics syllabus, 4th year of the scientific humanités (PDF)
• Diplome.cd: results and electronic diploma
• ACP: more than a million candidates for the 2026 Examen d'État
• ACP: 2026 off-session exams
• ACP: publication of the 2026 results by province
• ACP: the 50% threshold and the 14-digit code
• ACP: 185 winners of the 2026 Examen d'État receive Excellentia scholarships
• Campus France DRC: the FAQ in brief
• Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles: equivalence for a DR Congo diploma