Cape Town – The day hundreds of thousands of matrics have been anxiously awaiting is only hours away.
Tomorrow, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga will announce the National Senior Certificate Examination results and MECs will release results for their provinces on Wednesday.
Matric results for the Independent Examinations Board exams will be released tomorrow as well.
Motshekga on Friday briefed President Cyril Ramaphosa on the results.
This followed South Africa's Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training, Umalusi, approving the country's 2019 national examination results. The body said the examinations went smoothly without any systemic irregularities.
It did note, however, the impact of load shedding on the Computer Applications Technology and Information Technology exams in some parts of the country, and protest action in the North West that threatened the conduct of the examinations in parts of the province.
“The approval of Umalusi Council for the release of results is determined by the examination centres’ level of compliance with policies, directives and guidelines issued by both Umalusi and each of the assessment bodies.
"Before such an approval is granted, Umalusi Council has to satisfy itself that no systemic irregularities have occurred to undermine the integrity and the credibility of the examination process.
"To this end, Umalusi requires that each assessment body provides a report on irregularities,” Umalusi said.
The class of 2019 was the sixth Grade 12 cohort to write final examinations under the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (Caps). The same class had entered Grade 1 in 2008 when the NSC was written for the first time in Grade 12.
It was also the second cohort to write the newly introduced technical and technology subjects as well as South African Sign Language Home Language.
A professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria, Kobus Maree, said if pupils did not achieve the marks required for university admission, they must not give up hope as it was not the end of the world.
“If you achieved results that were below your expectations, this is a manageable challenge. Try to see what has happened as an area for growth; an opportunity to demonstrate your resilience and become more adaptable.
"This is a key characteristic and strength in these rapidly changing and uncertain times,” Maree said.