Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has expressed confidence that her department is more than ready to administer the highly anticipated final National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations for the class of 2024.
Gwarube said that on September 17, joined by her deputy minister Dr Reginah Mhaule and Director-General Mathanzima Mweli while briefing the media about the state of readiness for the final exams.
The Matric Class of 2024 are scheduled to put pen to paper for their final exams from October 21 and end on November 27.
In her address, Gwarube expressed confidence that her department has done a lot of work to prepare both the candidates and the system for this year’s examination.
This was a pivotal moment for the learners who were in their last weeks in the basic education system, she said.
Chief Director for National Assessment and Public Examinations, Dr Rufus Poliah, has confirmed the readiness and says there are 732,448 full-time candidates enrolled for NSC examinations.
Poliah says there are 8,400 more candidates than in 2023.
He said KwaZulu-Natal has the largest Grade 12 population with 172,213 candidates, followed by Gauteng contributing the second largest number with 136,620.
“Eastern Cape has 103,975 and Limpopo has 94,236, Mpumalanga has 68,455 and Western Cape has registered 64,552 while North West enrolled 41,480, Free State has 37,737 and Northern Cape registered 13,180 candidates this year.”
Poliah said there are 136,195 part-time candidates who are registered to sit for various subjects this year.
“The examinations will take place in 6,909 centres across the nine provinces.”
Poliah said that a total of 162 question papers for the 2024 October and November examinations have been approved by the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi) and ready to be handed over to provinces for printing.
He said the Class of 2024 was the seventh cohort that would sit for South African Sign Language Home Language (SASL HL) examinations in November 2024.
“Twenty-three schools in 9 provinces have 210 candidates registered for SASL HL, compared to 134 candidates in 2023,” said Poliah.
Deputy Director-General for Curriculum, Dr Barney Mthembu, says the Matric Class of 2024 is a special group because they were in Grade R in 2012 when the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) was implemented in the foundation phase.
“They entered Grade 8 in 2020 at the height of coronavirus, which means their transition from Primary to Secondary school was seriously disrupted.”
Mthembu said their Grade 9 year, which was in 2021, was crucial for subject selection in Grade 10, and was also disrupted due to a Coronavirus outbreak.
“The learners experienced social distancing which limited group work between teachers and group assessment activities. Rotational attendance affected coverage of the curriculum and created content gaps. At the height of Covid-19, teacher absenteeism affected teacher curriculum coverage negatively for this cohort.”
He said marking of the learners' exams will commence after they complete writing their exams.
“There are 55,053 markers appointed who will be stationed in 188 marking centres.”
The matric results will be announced by Gwarube next year on January 15, and be provided to all the provinces on January 16.
IOL