Matric class of 2024 may not be able to view their results in the media — again

The issue around the publication of matric results on media platforms has reared its head again as the basic education department has been ordered to not publish them in the media.

The information regulator (IR) issued a statement on Wednesday announcing that it had issued an enforcement notice on the department this month over its noncompliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).

“The department was issued with the notice on November 4 after the IR’s own initiative assessment. The IR found that the department was not compliant with section 11 of Popia and was in breach of the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information by failing to obtain consent for the publication of matric results from the pupils or parents/guardians of pupils who sat for the 2023 national senior certificate examinations.

“The IR found that no legal justification existed for the DBE to continue with the publication of the results in newspapers. It directed that the results of the 2024 matriculants should not be published in newspapers, and must make these results available to the pupils using methods that are compliant with Popia,” it said.

These are either through secure SMS platforms or from the schools themselves.

IR chairperson Pansy Tlakula elaborated.

“This matter comes a long way and started two years ago when the issue of matric results came up and whether publication of these results in the newspapers is compliant with Popia.

“We then engaged the department and said they must get the consent of the parents or pupils above 18 before they can publish them. The department tried to comply with that but I guess it was too late for them to get consent from [all the matric] pupils and their parents.”

Tlakula said that eventually the department opted to abandon the exercise entirely but this triggered a court challenge supported by AfriForum and Maroela Media.

In 2022, the Pretoria high court granted an urgent application by an 18-year-old matric pupil to reverse the basic education minister’s decision not to publish matric results on media platforms.

The court ordered the department “to publish the National Senior Certificate results on public platforms (media platforms) as was the practice in previous years, concurrently with making available the results to the schools that had been attended by the learners”.

At the core of the argument was the practicality of only receiving the results at the school where they completed their matric, meaning that if a pupil was not at the school on the day, they might not receive their results timeously.

Speaking of the assessment they carried out, which was to check “whether the way they [department] process personal information in general” complied with Popia, Tlakula said this was done in two parts.

The first, which resulted in the notice issued, looked at the way pupils' personal information was being processed in relation to the publication of the results in the media.

“Then there was part B, which involved just the way they processed personal information in general. We abandoned that part because it was too complex. We thought that we needed more information because you know the department processes personal information [not just of] pupils but also teachers and is also divided in different provinces.

“So we felt that we had not collected enough information to enable us to come to a conclusion. So we abandoned that and concentrated on the publication of results. And we then looked at whether that was in compliance with Popi because the act is not only based on consent. There are other grounds you can use.”

These included if the publication “protects the legitimate interests of the pupils” or the department as well as proving that there was a law requiring them to publish them in this manner.

“So we assessed all those and found that all those grounds which they had put forward did not apply and if they don't, it means they can only publish with the consent of the pupil or their parents.

“They said that the method they use in the newspaper is confidential because the public will not know who the owner of the exam number is. But the way they allocate them is essential ... [because they are published] sequentially [and by school]. So it wasn't confidential because the pupils from the same school could use their number to know the results of the other pupils.”

Because of the timing of all of this, Tlakula explained that the department was directed to not publish the 2024 results and then work on getting consent for 2025.

Tlakula said they were yet to receive a response from the department on this latest directive, even though they had previously cited the 2022 court order.

“Our view was that that was a court order by agreement ... it did not deal with whether the publication contravened the Popi Act or not.

“But if they want to take us to court, they are within their rights,” she added.

The department told TimesLIVE: “We are still processing it [the notice]. We are handling it internally first and once we are done deliberating we will communicate our position. For now we can’t comment.”

TimesLIVE