I would like to acknowledge the presence of:
Professor Yunus Ballim: Chairperson of Umalusi Council
Officials from Assessment Bodies:
Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) – Ms Thembisa Futshane – DDG for CET Colleges
Department of Basic Education (DBE) – Me Elijah Mhlanga –
Chief Director for Communications
Independent Examinations Board (IEB) – CEO, Ms Confidence Dikgole, and Executive Manager, Mrs Funiwe Bikitsha
South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) –
CEO, Mr Chris Klopper, and Ms Chipo Chibaya, Head of NSC
Umalusi Management
Media houses
 Ladies and gentlemen.

Good morning! I would like to welcome you to this media briefing in relation to the 2024 end of year national examination results.

Let me start by offering Umalusi’s deepest condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the late Professors Sibusiso Bengu and Chabani Manganyi, the democratic South Africa’s first Minister and Director-General of Education respectively, under President Nelson Mandela’s administration. They both dedicated their lives to the transformation of education in South Africa the fruits of which we are reaping today. May their souls rest in eternal peace.

Returning to today’s business; the purpose of the briefing is to make a pronouncement on the 2024 end of year national examination results in respect of the following four Umalusi-quality    assured qualifications.

The first is the General Education and Training Certificate: Adult Basic Education and Training (GETC: ABET), which is at Level 1 of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and is equivalent to Grade 9 in schools. The GETC: ABET is assessed by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), Independent Examinations Board (IEB), and South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI).

The second set of results are those of the NATED Report 190/191 (N2 - N3) programmes which are assessed by the DHET. As a reminder: The N1-N3 programmes are being phased out, with the last enrollment date for new students being 31 December 2023. The phase out has been occasioned by the Government Gazette signed by the Minister of Higher Education and Training on 25 August 2023. Detailed information on this phase-out process is available from the DHET.

The third qualification is the National Certificate Vocational (NCV) Level 2 – Level 4 and is assessed by the DHET.

The fourth set of results are for the National Senior Certificate (NSC), which is assessed by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), IEB and SACAI.

Programme Director, it is at this point where I find it necessary to clear the misconceptions about the ‘NSC vs IEB debate’. As you may be aware, there are some members of the public who, in discussing Grade 12 or ‘matric’ results, refer to the IEB as if it is a qualification that is in competition with the NSC. The fact is that the IEB is not a certificate, but an assessment body accredited by Umalusi to administer the NSC and GETC: ABET examinations. South Africa has got only 1 Grade 12 or ‘matric’ qualification, namely the NSC.

Therefore, the Grade 12 learners who write and succeed in the NSC examinations under the IEB receive the same NSC certificate that is quality assured and issued by Umalusi as is the case with the DBE and the SACAI learners.

Following the conduct, administration and management of the above examinations by the four assessment bodies, the monitoring thereof by Umalusi, and the standardisation of examination results by the Assessment Standards Committee (ASC) of Umalusi Council both the assessment bodies and Umalusi presented their reports for the consideration of the Executive Committee (EXCO) of Council. The outcomes of the deliberations of the ASC and the decisions of the EXCO of Umalusi Council will be presented shortly by Prof Ballim. I will now briefly present the scope and size of the 2024 examinations.

Scope and size of the 2024 examinations

 A total of 1 060 852 (one million sixty thousand eight hundred and fifty- two) candidates participated in the 2024 end of year examinations. Of that number:
a)    the NSC accounts for 832 993 candidates or 78.5% distributed across the DBE, IEB and SACAI.
b)    the remaining 227 859 or 21.5% candidates are distributed across three qualifications:
i.    138 000 wrote the NC(V) L2-L4 examinations,
ii.    49 421 wrote the N2-N3 examinations, and
iii.    40 438 wrote the GETC: ABET examinations.

The examinations were administered at a combined total of 9 566 examination centres distributed across the nine provinces of the country.

As the law requires, all the examinations were subjected to the quality assurance processes of Umalusi.

Umalusi quality assurance processes in 2024

The General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance (GENFETQA) Act (58 of 2001), as amended, confers a range of powers and functions on Umalusi in respect of the exit-level national examinations associated with the qualifications on the sub- framework of qualifications (NQF Level 1-4). The powers and functions include the:

a)    external moderation of question papers and site-based assessments or school-based assessment (SBA) to ensure the maintenance of standards of assessment,
b)    audit of the system to conduct, administer and manage the examinations to determine the readiness of the whole system,
c)    monitoring of the writing of the examinations across sampled examination centres to determine the credibility of the examinations,
d)    participation in marking guidelines standardisation meetings in selected subjects to ensure that the marking process is accurate and reliable,
e)    verification of quality of marking in sampled subjects to ensure accuracy and reliability,
f)    standardisation of examination marks to ensure comparability and consistency in learner performance across years, and
g)    approval of the publication of the learner results.

The abovementioned quality assurance processes show that the quality assurance framework that Umalusi uses requires of different role players to approach examination quality and standard from various but complementary dimensions to safeguard the integrity and credibility of every set of examination results.

I would like to express our thanks to every one of the moderators, examination monitors, marking verifiers, Umalusi staff, etcetera for ensuring the full implementation of the quality assurance framework.

Umalusi could not have reached this stage without your professional and administrative assistance.

Standardisation of the 2024 examinations

The Assessment Standards Committee (ASC) of Umalusi Council standardised the results of the examinations between 19 December 2024 and 5 January 2025. As mentioned already, standardisation of results is meant to ensure comparability and consistency in learner performance across years.

This year’s standardisation processes were undertaken in the presence of officials representing seven national and three continental organisations. The continental bodies were the Examinations Council of Lesotho (ECoL), Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) and Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB).

Nationally, in attendance were senior officials representing (a) Universities South Africa (USAf), (b) South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), (c) South African Council for Educators (SACE), (d) South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), (e) National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA), (f) National Teachers’ Union (NATU) and (g) Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU).

The observation of standardisation processes by especially stakeholder organisations lends credibility to the process and affirms our publicly stated position that Umalusi is a transparent public entity and that its quality assurance processes, standardisation included, are open to the scrutiny of peers on the continent and elsewhere in the world.

Based on the experiences gathered over five consecutive days, the observers from Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia shared several key
takeaways of which the following two are worth singling out for the purposes of today.

The first is that they said they were extremely impressed by the wealth of knowledge and experience that the members of the ASC possess.

Secondly, the observers said that they were amazingly surprised at the ASC’s use of multiple sources of available data or evidence, namely numerical evidence and narrative reports. They went further to affirm that the multiple reports elicited rich discussions that resulted in the ASC arriving at standardisation decisions by way of consensus.

Concerning the second takeaway, I can confirm, as the CEO of Umalusi, that during its standardisation processes, the ASC conducted meticulous analysis of the evidence presented in relation to each of the 514 subjects spread across four qualifications (150 NSC subjects, 269 NCV L2-L4 subjects, 55 N2 - N3 subjects and 40 GETC: ABET subjects) to arrive at standardisation decisions.

 Crucially important, I want to assure you that there were no deviations from the standardisation principles in the manner in which the ASC standardised the 514 subject results. This makes it abundantly clear that the ASC carries a great responsibility on its shoulders, i.e. to ensure that Umalusi truly honours its vision of being a trusted authority in fostering high education standards in General and Further Education and Training (GFET). Umalusi is indebted to the ASC for always executing its mandate in accordance with the Act, the relevant Umalusi policy and the approved principles of standardisation, which were applied consistently across all qualifications and subjects.

During the State of Readiness (SOR) Media Briefing in October 2024, Umalusi raised a concern at the shortage of markers in relation to the DBE’s History, Afrikaans First Additional Language and English

Home Language, particularly in Paper 3. I can confirm that the DBE did manage to put in place plans to ameliorate the situation.

Umalusi is also pleased that other risk factors such as loadshedding, weather conditions, community protests and so on did not materially affect the smooth running of the examinations.

Umalusi’s concerns regarding the 2024 examinations

As I conclude, I would like to express our concern at how some aspects of the conduct, administration and management of the examinations were handled by some of the assessment bodies.

Disallowing candidates from writing: Umalusi is concerned at the persistent phenomenon of teachers and principals refusing to allow registered learners to write examinations in particular subjects. Anecdotally, this practice is motivated by the desire to improve results. This is unlawful and Umalusi advises the affected learners and parents or guardians to report such incidents to the relevant authorities.

Unregistered candidates: Umalusi received a report from the DBE to the effect that an independent school allowed 30 candidates who did not pass Grade 11 to register for the Grade 12 examinations. This is highly irregular. Whereas this is only one case, it is one too many. Umalusi is satisfied with the action taken to withdraw the registration status of the school concerned.

Unaccredited institutions: Umalusi has learnt from the reports presented by the DHET that 128 private colleges administered the N2-N3 examinations despite that the colleges are not accredited by Umalusi. For that reason, Umalusi has directed the DHET to investigate the matter and furnish Umalusi with a full report.

Examination malpractices: While all four assessment bodies reported some detected cases of malpractice or cheating during the writing of the examinations, I find it necessary to flag the following cases:
i.    Almost 365 N2-N3 candidates in the private college sector are reported to have been involved in acts of copying.
ii.    In the case of the NSC, while there has been a reduction in the number of reported cases of group copying in the DBE, that is the number decreased from 945 in 2023 to 407 in 2024, Umalusi remains seriously concerned that KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga are once again at the top of the list with 195 and 74 implicated candidates respectively.

iii.    I want to state emphatically that cheating does not pay. This finds support in the judgment of the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court which was delivered on 12 August 2024 in respect of 448 learners from a number of schools in the Mpumalanga Province who cheated during their NSC examinations during October/December 2022. In the judgment, the Acting Judge said in Paragraph 37 “I have no doubt that the learners have cheated and had deserved to be punished as they were…what the learners must appreciate is that cheating does not pay.”

Regarding previous cases of irregularities involving teachers and invigilators, Umalusi is pleased with the progress made by the DBE. The conclusion of the cases resulted in some of the invigilators and teachers being dismissed while others had their salaries docked for up to three months. Similarly, we are pleased that the DBE is considering reporting such cases to the South African Council for Educators (SACE).

Umalusi remains concerned at the lack of a resolution in respect of the previous cases of irregularities involving DHET’s GETC: ABET qualification. We urge the DHET to give this matter the urgency that it deserves.

Marking concessions: We are also concerned at the year-on-year increase in the number of marking concessions that the DHET applied for. For the 2024 examinations Umalusi received marking concessions in 19 subjects compared to 17 in 2023. A marking concession is an instance where an assessment body makes a request to Umalusi to have certain questions found to be ‘problematic’ during the marking process to be excluded either entirely or partly and upscaling the total marks achieved using conversion tables. What is problematic about this practice is that it has the likelihood of negatively affecting the overall standard of the question papers concerned.

Umalusi urges all role players to put in place stringent measures to prevent the recurrence of all the above issues. If left unattended, the lapses in question could undermine the validity of the exam and the integrity of the certificates issued by Umalusi. Professor Ballim will explain in the approval statement how such cases must be dealt with by the relevant assessment bodies.

Umalusi strongly condemns the reported cases of the girl students who became victims of rape while preparing themselves for the examinations in the Eastern Cape. We urge stakeholders, including the law enforcement agencies, to work together to avoid the recurrence of this shocking reality.

We are very grateful to the Executive Committee (EXCO) of Umalusi Council for investing two full days of their time extracting meaning out of the large volumes of information presented by the assessment bodies and Umalusi in respect of the eleven sets of the examination results. We are grateful for EXCO members’ time, insight, expertise and their commitment without which we would not have been here.

Special thanks go out to the assessment bodies for cooperating in various ways with both the ASC and the EXCO of Umalusi Council at the various stages of the quality assurance value chain.

Finally, I would like to express my warmest, sincerest, and heart-felt congratulations to the Class of 2024, their families, and friends.

Thank you!