By Johnathan Paoli
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has expressed confidence in her department’s readiness to administer the final National Senior Certificate examinations for the class of 2024.
Gwarube, along with Deputy Minister Reginah Mhaule and Director-General Mathanzima Mweli, led the departmental delegation in briefing the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on the status of readiness ahead of the exams in
October and November.
In her opening remarks, the minister said the department had done a lot of work to prepare both the candidates and the system.
“It was very important for us to develop both the readiness of learners as well as the readiness of the system in tandem so that we can make sure that we can deliver a seamless exam period,” she said.
Gwarube said this was a pivotal moment for the learners who were in their last weeks of school.
Chief Director for National Assessment and Public Examinations, Rufus Poliah, reported that there were 732,448 full time candidates enrolled for the NSC exams – an increase of 8400 from last year.
Poliah said KwaZulu-Natal had the largest Grade 12 population with 172,213 candidates, while Gauteng contributed the second largest numbers with 136,620.
The Eastern Cape stands at 103,975, Limpopo at 94,236 and Mpumalanga has 68,4555 candidates.
The Western Cape registered 64,552 candidates, the North West enrolled 41,480, the Free State has 37,737 and the Northern Cape 13,180.
Poliah confirmed that there were 136,195 part-time candidates registered to sit for various subjects this year.
He said the examinations would take place in 6909 centres across the country, witha total of 162 question papers having been approved by Umalusi and ready for printing.
Poliah said this year’s class was the seventh cohort for South African Sign Language Home Language examinations, and that 23 schools nationally have 210 candidates registered for the subject, compared to 134 last year.
The Deputy Director-General for Curriculum, Barney Mthembu, highlighted several factors regarding the current cohort of learners.
They were in Grade R in 2012 during the year of implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in its foundation phase.
Additionally, Mthembu confirmed the learners had entered Grade 8 in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as having their Grade 9 year further disrupted by the systematic break in operations.
He said 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, while teacher absenteeism, during the height of the pandemic, affected teacher curriculum coverage negatively for this cohort.
Mthembu said that despite the disruptions, they started to benefit from the “Learning Recovery Programme” at primary school and that strategies and interventions aimed at addressing the academic setbacks were introduced.
“This saved the cohort from rotational attendance and loss of teaching and learning time and helped to complete the Grade 10 Annual Teaching Plans (ATPs),” he said.
He said that in Grade 12 this year, the candidates were benefiting from the wealth of resources which were developed, including previous diagnostic reports, question papers and study material.
Furthermore, Mveli had visited 162 study camps in different parts of the country throughout the year in order to support the learners in their preparation.
The delegation highlighted the fact that the class of 2024 has benefited from being taught by teachers who have improved subject results in 2022 and 2023.
“The class of 2024 reached Grade 12 when schools have mastered the skill of using the diagnostic reports of the previous years for examination preparation,” Mthembu said.
The NSC examinations are expected to run from 21 October to 27 November, with marking to commence immediately after.
The department confirmed that 55,053 markers have been appointed. They will be stationed in 188 marking centres.
The results will be released to candidates on 16 January next year, with the minister announcing the results a day before its release.
INSIDE EDUCATION
