Matric exams to start on November 1 and end on December 7, department circular shows

It’s official: the national senior certificate exams for matric pupils will start on November 1 and end on December 7.

The exam papers scheduled to be written on November 1 include English home language, first additional language and second additional language.

Details of the matric exams have been outlined in a circular dated June 22 signed by Rufus Poliah, acting deputy director-general for curriculum policy, support and monitoring in the department of basic education.

According to the circular, the exams will start later than usual “to allow for maximum teaching and learning time” and will extend over six weeks.

The life orientation common assessment task will be written on September 6 and a rewrite is scheduled for October 13.

The computer applications technology and the information technology paper 1 practical will be written on October 19 and 20 respectively.

The geography papers 1 and 2 will each be of three hours duration and will be written on separate days.

The writing time for all the home language paper 3s has been extended by 30 minutes and will be a three-hour paper, while a third paper has been added to all second additional language papers, which will be of 2½ hours’ duration.

For the first time, matrics will be writing marine sciences paper 1 and 2.

Poliah said schools will close for pupils on December 10 and for teachers on December 15.

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