By Amy Musgrave
The Pretoria high court has ruled that the Information Regulator’s (IR) bid to block the Basic Education Department from publishing the 2024 matric results in newspapers is not urgent.
This means that Minister Siviwe Gwarube will announce the National Senior Certificate exam results next Monday, and media platforms will publish the results the following day.
Judge Ronèl Tolmay said on Wednesday that the IR, which was opposed to the marks being made public due to concerns around privacy, had not moved with speed in its application.
“No persuasive reasons were given by the IR on why the application was delayed, the Regulator also waited 10 months to publish the assessment done after the 2023 publication of results,” she said.
Learners needed to take central stage and their interests were not prioritised in this application, the judge said.
The matter was struck off the roll, which means the 2024 matric results will be published on media platforms, including newspapers.
The urgent application was opposed by the department and civil rights group AfriForum.
The IR had raised concerns that the public release of the matric results violated the rights to privacy for learners under the Protection of Personal Information Act.
However, the department and AfriForum argued that pupils were not identified as only their student numbers were made public.
INSIDE EDUCATION
