The National Senior Certificate (NSC) is often the prerequisite for entry into higher education programmes and qualifications. However, with the results set to be released on 20 January 2023, stakeholders are concerned this may impact the ability of learners wanting to be admitted to universities and colleges.
Universities South Africa CEO, Dr Phethiwe Matutu says the release of NSC results later in January is a cause for concern. This as it gives learners and by extension institutions of higher education, less time to register for the academic year.
They explain that this will also compress the time available to an institution when registering students. It will also shorten the time period the university has to select students and could delay that date of a student's registration
Matutu said, “It is a very very tough one, you don't have room to move if the NSC results get released only on the 19th of January or the 20th of January and some universities have had to shorten their teaching time or their holiday time and it's not ideal.”
USAf are engaging with the Department of Basic Education in efforts to come up possible solutions to the challenges related to this.
Matutu says the amount of time it takes between the completion of the NSC examinations and the date when results are released can cause anxiety for learners.
They said, “It would certainly cause anxiety because generally, the period between when they finished writing Matric or National Senior Certificate exams and now it is quite a lengthy period and students want to see themselves being placed in a particular program and understanding what their future holds.”
DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the department is on schedule to release the final NSC results on Thursday, 19 January 2023. Candidates will receive their NSC results on Friday, 20 January 2023 at the examination venues where they wrote their examinations.
