Gauteng gives matric finals the green light

The Gauteng department of education said it was ready for the 235,975 candidates who will sit for their final national senior certificate (NSC) examinations that start on Thursday.

The province with the largest number of candidates said it was all systems go for the Grade 12 examinations.

MEC Panyaza Lesufi said this year’s exams will combine three categories of exams: the June, November and adult exams.

“There are 1,866 centres ready to host the exams and 13,798 invigilators have been appointed and trained. There are 1,409 monitors who will be visiting centres to ensure compliance with exam rules, 12,148 markers have been appointed and 2,034 venues have been secured for the marking of scripts to be concluded on January 22,” Lesufi said.

To prepare for the exams, Lesufi said extra lessons had been conducted by teachers to ensure all pupils had completed the syllabus and revision work.

“The Secondary School Intervention Programme (SSIP) was the major strategic intervention for the high-risk and high-flyer pupils for the NSC. Grade 12 pupils have been participating in weekend classes from June until they finished their preliminary examination,” Lesufi said.

He said the SSIP residential camps, which were aimed at accommodating pupils who were at risk of failing, ended yesterday.

“These residential camps ordinarily accommodated about 10,000 learners from underperforming schools from all affected districts. There were also walk-in centres which operated during this final push period and accommodated more than 76,000 candidates. The candidates were supported with all necessary material to assist them accordingly,” Lesufi said.

On Friday, Umalusi, the council which has to ensure matric exams meet the required standards, announced that it was ready for the NSC examinations despite disruptions caused by the Covid-19 lockdown.

The council’s CEO, Dr Mafu Rakometsi, said in the past few months, public and independent assessment bodies have worked hard to ensure their examination systems complied with Umalusi’s policy and directives regarding the administration, management and conduct of NSC examinations.

“The council has granted approval to private and public assessment bodies to administer the combined June and November 2020 national examinations for the NSC. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a peculiar academic year in which assessment bodies were compelled to reschedule their mid-year national examinations to November,” Rakometsi said

Grade 12 exam results will be released on February 23.

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