For decades the ritual for candidates from Matric final exams was to stay up late at night to buy their local newspapers to discover if they had passed their exams or not. Even as online sources became available - and were more efficient in the delivery of results - for many the ritual of looking for names in the newspaper was a right-of-passage for young people.
Matric Results in Newspapers
In recent years concerns about privacy caused a change in the newspaper publications. Surnames were replaced by exam numbers to preserve the privacy of candidates who failed the exams.
However even that concession was not enough for the Information Regulator, the government body tasked with supervising the management of personal information. They told the Department of Basic Education that results must not be published in newspapers. After a trip to the courts it looks like Matric results will be published in newspapers this year.
Have Matric Results Been Leaked?
As soon as that controversy died down the next concern was about a possible leak of exam results before the official release. A private company has been advertising on social media that for a fee of R100 candidates can get early access to their exam results.
It's unclear if this private company actually has the exam results or not. Some people complaining about the service say they didn't receive anything after paying the R100, but other feedback has been positive.
News24 Matric Results
For Matric candidates who are confused the best approach might be to just go to the News24 website and search for their results there. The advantage over the newspapers results is that they will get more details when viewing on the website.
Also because News24 is a reputable company you can be sure that the information will be accurate. The Department of Basic Education has supplied the results to News24 in advance with a strict embargo so that they only make them available at 6am on Tuesday 14th January.
Candidates looking to find their results can look on the News24 Matric Results web page.
IEB Website Matric Results
Candidates who wrote the IEB Matric exams can view their results a day earlier at 15:30 on Monday 13th January. These results are available on the website at www.ieb-online.co.za
