Gauteng education MEC Barbara Creecy yesterday expressed concern about this year's matric pass rate, committing her department to catch up on as much work as possible.

"We're very concerned about the pass rate - anybody would be. We want to send a message that all is not lost yet and we don't want to demoralise pupils," she said

Gauteng matric pupils will sit for their preliminary exams on Monday and attend study camps during the holiday to help with revision and completion of the curriculum.

After a long winter break due to the Fifa World Cup and three weeks lost to the strike, matrics have little time to finish 10 weeks of school work before the final exams in 45 days' time.

Speaking at a press briefing yesterday on the province's post-strike recovery plans, Creecy said pupils, teachers and governing bodies needed to use the time to get pupils ready.

Though some schools - unaffected by the public-service strike - have already written their preliminary exams, the affected 80% will write their prelims between Monday and September 23.

Matrics will have a busy schedule writing two exams a day - a three-hour paper in the morning and another two-hour paper in the afternoon. They will also attend study groups to prepare for the next day's exams.

Creecy said pupils could continue to attend the 70 study groups established during the strike. The were attended by about 21000 pupils.

"We are very encouraged by the fact that ordinary pupils themselves are taking responsibility for their own learning," she said.

The study camps, initially organised for the 47000 pupils in the province's 276 underperforming schools, will now be open to all matrics. There are about 97000 registered matrics in Gauteng.

The minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, is expected to announce the national recovery plans today.