I don’t know when and how it was decided that matric exam results be made public information by being published in newspapers, but the system has a troubling flaw. A student’s results are private and personal and should be kept that way.

Anyone who's been a matric student waiting for published results knows that those few hours before the newspaper are very agonising, not only because of being anxious about your results but because of also knowing that everyone will know of your fate – sometimes even before you find out yourself. Published matric results have been the cause of loads of stress for students and have put many of them through the most embarrassing times of their young lives.

Every year during this time we hear of young people who commit suicide because of being too embarrassed to face the world after discovering they failed their matric. This year it was Nomsa Mokoena from Soweto (and probably many others whose stories didn’t make it to the media). I don’t think such suicides have much to do with the disappointment of failing itself. Students fail and repeat classes all the time. I think the hype around matric created by society is the problem. We’re very quick to tell those who have failed that failing matric is not the end of the world, but right after we’ve done everything to suggest that it is!

If I were Minister of Education I would do away with publishing matric results. Results would be released at each individual school to students by teachers on a one-on-one basis. And the student would have to be accompanied by a parent or a guardian. That way, even if there are bad news, there would be a trusted individual there to help them deal with it. I think that would be a bit more sensitive than the current process.