Today marks the last day of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams, and according to the Department of Basic Education, work is already underway to kickstart the marking process.
When is the 2024 matric results release date?
On Thursday, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube confirmed that more than 800,000 pupils who sat for the 2024 matric exams will know their fate as early as mid-January.
According to the minister, thousands of qualified educators around the country will begin marking at 180 vetted centres as soon as Sunday, 1 December 2024, 10 days ahead of the last day of school.
“The scripts are moving from exam centres to marking centres under heavy police guard. This is a big process that we need to focus on and make sure that the integrity of it is sustained.,” the minister said.
Once the checks are completed, by 16 December 2024, the department will release the national matric results at a press briefing on Monday, 13 January 2024, with each province publishing its respective outcomes a day later (14 January 2025).
Matric results will be published in newspapers, minister confirms
One pertinent question that lingers is the publication of matric results in newspapers, a traditional practice that, with growing calls for privacy propagated by the POPIA Act, has come under the spotlight.
Earlier this week, the Information Regulator ordered the Basic Education Department to ” provide it with an undertaking that it will not publish the NSC exam results of the 2024 matriculants in the newspapers; and (ii) in respect of the 2025 matriculants, develop a system to obtain the voluntary and informed consent of learners or their parents/ guardians before the publication of their results, which system must be verified by the Information Regulator before deployment to ensure compliance with the provisions of POPIA.”
However, Gwarube held an opposing view, emphasising that “the publishing of a unique exam number does not amount to the contravention of personal details of learners.”
“We are also guided by the court case where the court did in fact, a couple of years ago, affirm that publishing the results in newspapers is beneficial to some learners who aren’t able to go back to schools to collect their scripts,” she said.
The minister made it clear that, “unless we are interdicted,” the 2024 matric results will be published in newspapers.
