Teachers’ union has reacted with contempt to the High Court’s ruling to allow the publication of matric results in newspapers. Matric results are set to be announced tomorrow and released on 21 January 2022.
South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) is not at all happy with the ruling made at the Pretoria High Court in relation to matric results being publicized
The application on matric results publishing ban was won by Afriforum, Maroela Media, and matric pupil Anlé Spies.
Afriforum’s argument was there’s no harm in publishing the results as only the examination numbers of students are being published. This number is only known to each individual student.
Pretoria matriculant, Anlé Spies filed an affidavit filed stating that in publishing the matric results in the media and online, the DBE would not encroach on the Popi Act, as no personal information about the matriculants was released.
On the other hand, SADTU expressed how in their view, this was about protecting the business interests of media houses above those of the learners and their parents.
The union said:
In our view, the publishing of matric results does not bring any educational benefit to those directly concerned, being our learners. The publishing of the results only brings extra monetary value to the media houses that see it as some kind of a money-making bonanza.
For the full statement, click here.
Maroela Media executive director, Susan Lombaard had an alternate view on the matter, “I think we have lots of matriculants that are not at home at the moment. Those who are not able to visit these schools and get the results themselves, so it’s extremely important for those matrics to be able to have access to the results whether it’s online or in a publication in the newspaper.”