By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Examination quality assurer Umalusi has given the green light for the release of the 2024 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam results.
Chairperson of Umalusi’s council, Professor Yunus Ballim, granted approval for the release of the results of the exams administered by the SA Comprehensive Assessment Institute (Sacai), Independent Examinations Board (IEB) and Department of Basic Education.
Ballim said there were no reported systemic irregularities that might have compromised the overall credibility and integrity of the exams.
Speaking during the media briefing in Pretoria on Monday, Umalusi CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi said the body remained “seriously concerned that KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga are once again at the top of the list” for pupils caught copying in the exams.
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.
He also said that a report from the basic education department indicated that a private school allowed 30 candidates who did not pass Grade 11 to register for the Grade 12 exams.
Umalusi further raised concerns over the increase in the requests for marking concessions.
This is when there is a question in an exam that is deemed problematic during the marking process and it is requested to be excluded either entirely or partially. As a result, the upscaling of the total marking is achieved using the convention tables.
There was a request for marking concessions in 19 subjects in 2024 compared to 17 subjects in 2023.
“It can affect the overall standard of the paper in question. Umalusi has called for the exam bodies to look into this,” said Rakometsi.
According to Rakometsi, out of 880,209 candidates candidates who were registered to write the NSC exam under the Department of Basic Education (DBE), 810,900 managed to write. This means that 69,309 of the registered students were absent from the exams.
EXCO of Council approved the release of the DBE November 2024 National Senior Certificate examination results.
The Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, will announce the national results on 13 January. Then, on 14 January, the individual results will be released to the media.
National Senior Certificate (NSC) pupils can access their results via the Department of Basic Education website.
Additionally, for the IEB exam results, pupils can access their results via the IEB website.
To access your results, you only need to enter your exam number and date of birth.
MatricsMate app
You can also download the MatricsMate app from the Google Play Store for Android devices and the Apple App Store for iOS devices.
You will only need to provide your exam number to get your results.
SMS
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 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.
USSD code
At 6am, on the day of the results, dial *120*35658*. Enter your ID number and exam number as prompted and get your results.