By Johnathan Paoli
With the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams starting on Monday, the Basic Education Department says it all systems go.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said on Sunday that the exams were not only a critical milestone for the learners involved, but they also represented the cumulative efforts of the education system, schools, communities and the department.
“With just hours to go before the first paper is written, I proudly announce that we are ready to administer the 2024 NSC exams – holding ourselves to best-in-class integrity, security, and efficiency standards,” she told reporters in Pretoria.
Well wishes have been pouring in for the Class of 2024, with President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledging the dedication of the learners, teachers and their families.
“You are ready now to play back the knowledge you have acquired during these important years of your life. Be confident in what you know and believe in yourself,” the Ramaphosa said.
“These examinations are not an obstacle; they’re a gateway to your continued success and a new phase of your life in which the adventure of learning and the ability to share your knowledge with others never stops.
“As you continue to prepare for your exams, there will be moments of difficulty. When these come, ask for help from everyone around you and they will support you.”
Gwarube said department has implemented numerous interventions.
These included personalised learning programmes and extra tuition sessions to address the educational disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which particularly affected this cohort of learners earlier in high school.
Other key initiatives supporting the Class of 2024 were personalised learning interventions, additional teaching support and socio-emotional care.
Equally, provinces rolled out face-to-face extra tuition sessions, Saturday catch-up programmes, and extended school hours in key subjects — especially to learners who struggled to cope with the curriculum content due to earlier disruptions.
These targeted initiatives focused on subjects with high enrolments, such as Mathematics, Life Sciences and Business Studies.
In addition to classroom-based interventions, learners have also benefited from extensive support in the form of revision materials, past question papers and online resources made available through public-private partnerships with stakeholders such as Vodacom, MTN and the National Education Collaboration Trust.
The minister said these partnerships had made an invaluable contribution to education in the country.
This year, the examination process will include 727,121 full-time and 155,215 part-time candidates, along with 16,400 learners from private institutions writing the IEB exams.
Gwarube said that to ensure the integrity of the examination process, comprehensive security measures had been put in place, including monitoring at high-risk centres and deploying qualified markers for the grading process.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance has also extended its best wishes to the matric class, highlighting the resilience shown by learners amidst various challenges such as overcrowded classrooms and inconsistent access to school resources.
The DA’s Delmaine Christians emphasised the importance of staying focused during this critical period and expressed hope for successful outcomes once the results were released next year.
She said good quality education was the best way to ensure that young people were lifted out of poverty.
INSIDE EDUCATION
