Learners of the Matric Class of 2021 will finally know their fate ahead of the release of the results today.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga will announce the 2021 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results at a ceremony at the SABC’s studios in Johannesburg.

More than 735 000 full-time candidates sat for the National Senior Certificate Examinations in 2021.

The matric results announcement will include information about the pass rate in the country’s nine provinces.

The provinces will then release their respective results tomorrow.

The Department of Basic Education initially announced that no matric results will appear on any public platforms this year due to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

However, the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday ruled in favour of AfriForum and ordered the department to publish the results in newspapers.

The department has also confirmed that matric results will be available through its zero-rated website.

To register, candidates must provide their ID number and exam number.

Challenges faced by 2021 group

Civil Society group Equal Education says the class of 2021 grappled with several unique challenges that previous matric learners did not face. The challenges included power cuts by Eskom, and timetable changes due to Local Government Elections and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic saw instances where schools had to be closed for some time due to various lockdowns prompted by spikes in COVID-19 cases.

Upon reopening, many schools were faced with the challenge of not being able to accommodate all learners at once, and schools subsequently had to introduce rotational timetables.

This led to delays in the academic year, with learners missing learners much of their school time and having to play catch up.