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Umalusi approves 2019 Matric results

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The Council for Quality Assurance in Education, Umalusi, has approved the release of the 2019 Matric results.

Over 600 000 full-time candidates sat for the exams, while over 100 000 were part-time candidates.

Speaking during a media briefing in Pretoria, on Friday, Umalusi CEO Mafu Rakometsi says they are satisfied that there were no systemic irregularities during the 2019 examinations and no paper leaks.

“We did not have any paper leakage, this is where we should be as a country. Question paper leakage is something that we should frown upon as a nation, no self-respecting country should accept this kind of malpractice in examinations. We need to continuously work on strengthening our system to ensure that they remain tight and fully proofed,” says Rakometsi.

‘Load shedding did not affect outcome’

Load shedding experienced during matric exams did not affect the outcome of the 2019 matric results.

Umalusi says learners whose exam was disrupted while sitting for the Computer Application Technology(CAT) paper as a result of load shedding were given an opportunity to rewrite.

Alternative arrangements were also made for learners whose exams were almost threatened by service delivery protests in the North West.

The Basic Education department managed to change the examination centre to avoid disruptions. Umalusi has been briefing the media in Pretoria on its approval of the 2019 National Senior Certificate.

Umalusi’s Professor John Vomink says, “For CAT, it affected just under a 1 994 candidates, but the alternative arrangement was made, so that the affected learners could write a backup paper, in those subjects in the 29th of November. There were also protest actions in the North West that we were aware of, and that threatened the conduct of the examinations in part of the province, however, the DBE, was able to make alternative, arrangements, timeously and proactively.

Western Cape targets 80% matric pass rate 

Meanwhile, the Western Cape Department of Education says it hopes to maintain an above 80% matric pass rate for 2019. The 2018 pass rate was 83.2%.

The national results are expected to be announced on Tuesday, with individual results available on Wednesday.

Spokesperson, Bronagh Hammond, says although they’ve had a number of challenges this year, including community protests and gang violence that disrupted schooling, they are hopeful for good results in the province.

“We know that our matriculants put in a lot of hard work as well our educators and we look forward to seeing the results on Tuesday. And also the analysis of the results. We hope to maintain a high bachelor pass rate, it’s very important to look at the retention rate and also to look at how many MEO candidates sat for the exams. So we’ll be looking at all those various factors to determine if we have improved the quality of the NSC this year,” says Hammond.

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