On Monday morning, Umalusi hosted a press briefing to confirm the approval of the 2024 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam results. 832 993 public school candidates sat down to write their National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams in 2024 for 150 subjects.
The matric results will be released to candidates on 14 January across the country, after the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, announces the matric results on Monday evening.
Umalusi’s CEO, Mafu Rakometsi, announced:
I would like to express my warmest, sincerest and heartfelt congratulations to the Class of 2024. They are family and friends.
All exams were subjected to the quality assurance processes of Umalusi.
From 19 December until 5 January, Umalusi undertook standardisation processes of the matric results. This is meant to ensure consistency in matric performance across various years.
Umalusi announced that the assessments leading to certification in schools was of the required standard in 2024.
The quality assurer previously raised concerns about a shortage of markers. Rakometsi confirmed that the Department put plans in place to address this, including concerns about loadshedding and protests which could have potentially disrupted the matric exams.
There has been a reduction in the number of group-copying cases found from 945 in 2023 to 407 in 2024. The Umalusi CEO said:
Umalusi remains seriously concerned that Kwazulu-Natal and Mpumalanga are once again at the top of the list.
Out of all the candidates who registered to participate in the October/November matric examination period, only 810 900 managed to write. The remaining students were absent, which will be assessed.
704 401 of the total candidates who wrote were full-time candidates and the remaining 106 499 were part-time candidates. Examinations were written across 6 933 exam centres across South Africa.
Of the matric results for 68 subjects which were submitted for standardisation to Umalusi by the Department of Basic Education, raw marks were accepted for 53 subjects, upward adjustments for 2 subjects and downward adjustments were made for 13 subjects.
A year on year comparison of the DBE results show a clear pattern of an upward trend in the number of subjects for which raw marks are being accepted over the last 4 years. This is a very clear signal that the system continues to produce consistent and reliable results over time.
Umalusi is pleased that there were no detected cases of paper leakages, or other irregularities that could have compromised the overall credibility and integrity of the examinations.