Durban - The Congress of South African Students (Cosas) has added its voice to those calling for an end to the tradition of newspapers publishing the names of matriculants.
On Thursday a group of Cosas members picketed outside the Department of Education provincial headquarters in Durban to voice their concerns.
Nkosi Shange, the deputy secretary of Cosas in KwaZulu-Natal, said publishing the results violated the country’s constitution.
“Everyone has a right to privacy… Publishing the results without any prior consent from the learners is a violation of that right.”
Shange said it also placed pressure on matric pupils and “contributed to embarrassment’’ of those who failed.
While there have been proposals that only exam numbers be published, Shange said Cosas wanted a total ban.
“The only people who benefit out of this thing are the capitalist media houses…“
Shange said the organisation would intensify its campaign throughout the year.
In a statement earlier this week, the Young Communist League said “learner performance results are a confidential matter between the learner and the department, and can only be revealed… with the consent of the learner”.
Announcing the 2012 matric results on Wednesday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said that she was setting up a ministerial task team which would, among other things, look into the concerns regarding the publishing of pupils’ names. -Daily News