Students congress slams late release of matric results, urges universities, colleges to give class of 2022 more time to register

Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi/African News Agency (ANA)

Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Jan 19, 2023

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Durban – The Congress of South African Students (Cosas) is up in arms over the late release of the National Senior Certificate results for the class of 2022. Department of Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is expected to release the results this evening. Independent Examination Board (IEB) results were announced on Wednesday.

Cosas said the matric results were to be announced six days after colleges and universities commenced registration. It urged all institutions of higher learning to grant the 2022 matric candidates more time to enrol and register.

It said it was concerned about the continuing distance between the Department of Basic Education and that of Higher Education, which was particularly worrying with regard to post-school education and training.

It also highlighted the barriers that matriculants faced when seeking access to higher education. One of these is the application point scores which were not nationally standardised or regulated. These forms of academic exclusion would definitely affect the class of 2022 if not managed properly, it said.

“The release of IEB (Independent Examinations Board) senior certificate results before the NSC speaks directly to the inequalities we are faced with in the basic education sector. Hence, we are still of a firm view that private schools should be nationalised despite the fact that the IEB is based on the South African national curriculum,” Cosas said.

It also said that no pupil must be denied access to their matric results statement because of money owed for textbooks, as the South African Schools Act of 1996 stipulated that learners from quintile 1 to 3 schools must be exempted from paying school fees.

The school fee exemption policy articulates that “each school, through its school governing body, must determine fees and inform parents and caregivers about the exemption policy”.

Motshekga is expected to release the matric results this evening at a ceremony held at the Mosaiek Church in Fairland, Johannesburg.

Matric pupils across the country will know their fate on Friday.

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