Umalusi gives go-ahead for release of 2024 results
South African exam quality assurer, Umalusi, has approved the release of the 2024 matric exam results, noting that no systemic irregularities affected the exams’ credibility.

Exam assessment organisation, Umalusi, has given the go-ahead in Pretoria this morning for the National Senior Certificate results to be released by the Department of Basic Education.
The chairperson of the Umalusi council, Yunus Ballim, granted permission for the release of the results as compiled by the SA Comprehensive Assessment Institute, Independent Examinations Board and Department of Basic Education.
The top 20 achievers met with Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube on Monday morning for a ministerial breakfast.
Gwarube is expected to release the full results on Monday evening and the results will be available to candidates on January 14.
“There are no reported irregularities in the process that compromised the integrity,” said Ballim.
He congratulated the Class of 2024 who have succeeded in the examinations at a media briefing.
Roleplayers such as Chris Klopper, CEO of the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute and Dr Eva Sujee, executive manager of quality assurance and monitoring at Umalusi, also attended the meeting.

“Words of appreciation are also due to their teachers, parents, guardians and all those who have supported the learners throughout their journey. Including the maintenance and cleaning staff at our schools and colleges, the taxi and other public and private transport drivers who took care of bringing our learners to school and the community members who show concern for the learning of our children. We thank all role players for ushering the Class of 2024 to this important day,” said Ballim.
He said they are however concerned about issues that were brought to light by various assessment organisations working together with Umalusi, like the high copying rates by learners during exams in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.
Ballim also mentioned that a high absenteeism rate of more than 8% has, once again, been noted in some of the examinations.
“Equally important, there are subjects that continue to produce unusually high failure rates. These observations raise the question about the levels of support learners need,” said Ballim.

Umalusi CEO Mafu Rakometsi confirmed the organisation learnt from reports presented by the Department of Higher Education that 128 private colleges administered the N2-N3 exams, despite them not being accredited by Umalusi.
Rakometsi emphasised they have called for an investigation and a report on this.
A total of 1 060 852 candidates participated in the 2024 end-of-year examinations.
Of that number, the National Senior Certificate accounts for 832 993 candidates or 78.5% distributed across the Department of Basic Education Independent Examinations Board (IEB) and South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute.
The remaining 227 859 or 21.5% of candidates are distributed across three qualifications: the L2-L4 examinations, the N2-N3 examinations, and the ABET examinations.
The examinations were administered at a combined total of 9 566 examination centres distributed across the nine provinces of the country.
Rakometsi said Umalusi is concerned about the persistent phenomenon of teachers and principals refusing to allow registered learners to write examinations in particular subjects.
“This is unlawful and Umalusi advises the affected learners and parents or guardians to report such incidents to the relevant authorities,” warned Rakometsi.
He also pointed out that while the number of reported cases of copying nationally decreased from 945 in 2023 to 407 in 2024, a total of 195 candidates in KwaZulu-Natal and 74 in Mpumalanga were implicated in copying.

“I need to tell these learners that cheating does not pay,” said Rakometsi.
He strongly condemned the reported cases of the girl students who became victims of rape while preparing themselves for the examinations in the Eastern Cape. He urged stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, to work together to avoid the recurrence of this shocking reality.
He concluded by saying the online fraud and selling of matric results at R100 before they are released on January 14, is a matter that seriously concerns Umalusi and an investigation would be called for.
The one other area of concern to him is the year-on-year increase in the number of marking concessions that the Department of Higher Education and Training has applied for.
A marking concession is an instance where an assessment body makes a request to Umalusi to have certain questions found to be “problematic” during the marking process to be excluded either entirely or partly and upscaling the total marks achieved using conversion tables.
“For the 2024 examinations, Umalusi received marking concessions in 19 subjects compared to 17 in 2023. What is problematic about this practice is that it has the likelihood of negatively affecting the overall standard of the question papers concerned.”
Matric candidates can access their results on their mobile phones, newspapers and from their schools.
National Senior Certificate (NSC) learners can access their results via the Department of Basic Education website.
Additionally, for the IEB exam results, learners can access their results via the IEB website. To access your results via SMS, remember to use your own mobile phone because you can only use one mobile number for each exam number. To sign up for the SMS service, send your ID number and exam number to 35658 for public school results and 35135 for IEB results. Once signed up, your results will be messaged to you on the day the results are published.
– Click here to listen to the Umalusi media briefing where Dr Mafu Rakometsi thanked assessment role players.
Read more: Tips to deal with stress: Gauteng Education Dept hopes 2024 matrics will raise the bar
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