Ban on publishing results slammed, welcomed

THE country’s media houses have described the government’s decision to ban the publishing of matric results by newspapers as “ridiculous”.

This comes after Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s announcement that matric results would no longer be published in the newspapers.

Motshekga was speaking at a media briefing on the readiness of the start of the academic calendar yesterday.

She said the decision not to publish pupils’ results in newspapers and on social media platforms was taken after parents’ pleas, who cited psychological reasons.

Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said this was in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (Act No 4 of 2013) (Popia), which came into effect on July 1 last year.

The act was put in place for the protection of private information against the unlawful collection, retention, dissemination and use of personal information.

“As was also the practice in previous years all learners will be required to obtain their statement of results from the schools they attended. In this way, every learner’s personal information with regard to the outcome of their national senior certificate exam will be protected,” Mhlanga said.

Various media houses expressed shock at the decision and described it as ridiculous.

The Citizen, owned by Caxton, slammed the decision. Digital editor Earl Coetzee said he did not understand how banning results in the newspapers could stop pupils from committing suicide, if they fail to accept the negative results.

“We are still trying to figure out what will happen and would be in a better position in a few days to come, how this would affect us but for now the reason given that pupils would commit suicide sounded ridiculous, because it is not clear how the decision would stop pupils from killing themselves.”

Coetzee said that for years newspapers published examination numbers, not the full names of pupils and no one except the pupil in question would know the examination number.

Ilanga newspaper, which has also been publishing results for years, also expressed shock. Company manager Vishal Nunkumar said the decision would have a negative impact on advertising revenue because there were companies that were taking advantage of the increased demand of the papers during this period and placed adverts.

The paper’s editor, Philani Mgwaba, lashed out at the government, saying he believed that there was another reason the government had relied on, not the one it was telling the public.

He said the decision to make results public was for the benefit of pupils more than anyone, because there were people living in remote areas who will be longing to see the results but not being able to because of the distance.

WITH the announcement by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) that matric results will no longer be available for everyone to access in public platforms, a health expert has weighed in and said that although this was a positive move, it was not enough as it would still impact negatively on the society.

Counselling psychologist and public speaker Tholinhlanhla Dlamini-Ngcoya said this was a relief to a few, however, parents who had complained about the publicising of matric results of learners in newspapers, appeared to make this about them and not about the learners.

On whether the move would affect businesses and individuals that had relied on newspapers to choose high-performing learners and financially support them through bursaries towards their tertiary studies, Dlamini-Ngcoya said this would undoubtedly affect the business side of things, as they would no longer be able to access the results.

“With the rise of social media, children take the media very seriously, and if anything goes wrong and they are feeling that their privacy has been compromised, they can commit suicide. This is also fuelled by the communities they live in, because matric results have been turned into a status thing in the community, and become everyone’s business.”

Dlamini-Ngcoyi emphasised that the current generation was not as resilient compared to the previous generation. She mentioned that suicide was real and many children had died, therefore taking a risk and continuing publishing their names was not worth it. She also urged parents and businesses to provide support and understand that learners also encountered problems like everyone else.

“They apply pressure and condemn children when they fail their matric, and forget that many factors are contributing to that. One can give an example about the passing of a family member, this has an impact on learners. The other impact is that many other social issues may slow down the performance of learners.”

According to Dlamini-Ngcoya, the downside of not publicly publishing matric results, was that learners might lose motivation to work extra hard.

She added: “The Department of Health must provide the children with mental health support at the schools especially from Grade 11, because even though the decision to not publicise the results is moving in the right direction, it is not the solution.

“It might reduce the psychological impact that the negative results will have on the children from the external factors like community, parents, peers, etc, but will not assist dealing with the internal factors which lead to depression and sometimes suicidal ideation,” said Dlamini-Ngcoya.