Education quality assurance body Umalusi said matriculants waiting to submit their final results at universities would not miss admission deadlines.

Umalusi assured pupils that tertiary institutions were cognisant of the delay in the release of matric results, and would adjust their admission dates accordingly.

In previous years, final matric results were released in the first week of January. However, this year, they will be released on the 20th.

The Department of Basic Education and Umalusi attributed the delay to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Umalusi CEO Mafu Rakometsi said the process should be finalised by Monday.

75% of the standardisation process was complete, but the remaining 25%, which comes from school-based assessments, would take more time, he said.

“We should remember that Covid-19 has shifted the programmes slightly, where the school calendar would have started earlier this year, that is, in 2022 started a bit late, and the exams were written a bit late, and the marking. So, this pushed everything forward.”

Despite the overall delay, Rakometsi explained that each subject had to be finalised individually.

“We are looking at all the subjects that the students have registered for, and what we do in that finalisation process is we look at the performance of this year against the performance of the student in the past five years.”

Experts were employed to conduct the lengthy process and retain raw results.

In addition, Rakometsi said Umalusi was in talks with the basic education department, the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute, the Independent Examinations Board, and the Department of Higher Education and Training, to ensure marks were finalised smoothly.

Rakometsi said Umalusi had to plead with the basic education department to grant it more time to process the results.

“Umalusi has been pleading that we don’t release the results in December. This is to allow us to do our work meticulously and engage in our work with the necessary rigour, without being rushed.”