Anticipation brews ahead of the 2021 NSC matric results announcement

Learners of the Matric Class of 2021 will finally know their fate ahead of the release of the results on Thursday.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga will announce the 2021 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results at a ceremony at the SABC’s studios in Johannesburg.

More than 735 000 full-time candidates sat for the National Senior Certificate Examinations in 2021.

The matric results announcement will include information about the pass rate in the country’s nine provinces.

The provinces will then release their respective results on Friday.

The Department of Basic Education initially announced that no matric results will appear on any public platforms this year due to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

However, the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday ruled in favour of AfriForum and ordered the department to publish the results in newspapers.

The department has also confirmed that matric results will be available through its zero-rated website.

To register, candidates must provide their ID number and exam number.

In the video below, some 2021 matric learners say they are anxiously awaiting the release of their results:

Challenges faced by 2021 group

Civil Society group Equal Education says the class of 2021 grappled with several unique challenges that previous matric learners did not face. The challenges included power cuts by Eskom, and timetable changes due to Local Government Elections and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic saw instances where schools had to be closed for some time due to various lockdowns prompted by spikes in COVID-19 cases.

Upon reopening, many schools were faced with the challenge of not being able to accommodate all learners at once, and schools subsequently had to introduce rotational timetables.

This led to delays in the academic year, with learners missing learners much of their school time and having to play catch up.

Equal Education’s Head of Research and Development Roné McFarlane says the various challenges in the 2021 academic year put matric learners under immense pressure:

IEB results 

Meanwhile, the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) class of 2021 has achieved a 98.3% pass rate in the matric examination. This is slightly higher than the 2020’s pass rate of 98.06%.

All candidates who achieved a pass that is good enough to enter the tertiary study at one of the three levels.

It has been an upward trajectory for the Class of 2021. The group has registered an increase in the overall pass rate.

The number of candidates obtaining bachelor passes also increased. IEB Bachelor passes jump to 89.2% in 2021 from 88.41%  in 2020.

Diploma passes at 7.82% for 2021 against 8.14% in 2020.

A day of celebrations across the country as the IEB Matric Class of 2021 received their results: 

-Additional reporting by SABC News