Pretoria Boys High School is a state school and operates under the Gauteng Department of Education. The curriculum is broadly governed by the provisions of the Senior and FET curriculum documents. Pupils write the National Senior Certificate Examination in Form V (Grade 12), the public examination, which for successful candidates, results in the awarding of a school-leaving certificate.
PBHS matric groups generally achieve 100% pass rates in the NCS examinations and in excess of 80% University Entrance Passes. This places it among the top achieving schools in South Africa.
The school is fortunate to always be fully staffed with suitably-qualified teachers. The policy on class sizes is to limit these to a maximum of thirty pupils, although in senior classes there will generally be fewer than this number.
In terms of physical facilities, the school has, in addition to standard classrooms, access to a full range of specialised rooms including science laboratories, computer centres, and technical subject workshops. There is adequate physical accommodation for pupils and teachers, with the number of teachers who share classrooms being kept to an absolute minimum.
This philosophy of the school is to pursue high academic standards and to extend pupils academically. Research assignments are set within most subjects. A number of subject departments undertake day excursions and even three day educational tours.
The management of the academic programme is the responsibility of the Head of Studies who reports to the Headmaster. Subject Departments are the responsibility of Heads of Subject who meet on a weekly basis with their staff and fortnightly with the Head of Studies.