350,000 pupils expected to sit for mid-year matric exams

More than 350,000 pupils are expected to sit for the country's first-ever mid-year matric examinations, the national department of education said on Monday.

The exams are expected to start on May 2 and will continue until June 14.

Explaining the high volume of those expected to write, department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said this was because the department had merged the February/March supplementary exams and the May/June senior certificate examinations.

"For this reason, the number of candidates who will sit for the 2019 mid-year examination has increased significantly, and will see well over 350,000 registered candidates write the annual examination, as compared to numbers that were lower than 200,000 in the past, for both exams," Mhlanga said in a statement.

The results are expected to be released on August 2 2019.

Mhlanga said the mid-year senior certificate examination was similar to the November national senior certificate examination with all subjects offered in the NSC examination being offered in the mid-year examination.

Most of the full-time candidates who will be writing the exam will be from KwaZulu-Natal, with 42,453 people registered. Then comes Limpopo with 31,749 candidates.

The Eastern Cape has 22,002 registered candidates.

A total of 166,453 full-time candidates from all the provinces is expected to sit for the exam, while 191,149 are part-time learners.

"A total of 6,581 centres will be used for the writing of the mid-year 2019 examinations, while a total of 35 marking centres have been identified,"  Mhlanga said.

Those who are eligible to write the exams include pupils who missed any of their final exams due to ill health or deaths within their immediate family as well as candidates who wrote the October/November national senior certificate examination but did not meet the requirements of the NSC or those who meet the requirements of the NSC but wish to improve their performance either in terms of the subject, or the type of pass obtained.

"In addition, the NSC candidates who write the May/June NSC examination may register to write the subsequent NSC examination in October/November, if necessary. NSC candidates are not limited in the number of examination sittings that they may register to write in order to fulfil the requirements of the qualification. Part-time and repeat candidates that register to write the October/November examination may register to write the mid-year examination of the following year," Mhlanga said.