Johnathan Paoli
More than 180 000 candidates consisting of some 133 2885 full-time candidates and 54 789 part-time/repeater candidates sat for the Matric final National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams this year which started on 30 October and finished on 6 December, the MEC for Gauteng Education Matume Chiloane confirmed on Sunday.
Chiloane said that Weekly Quality Promotion (QP) meetings were held throughout the examination period, to review processes, sharing of practices, and necessary guidance from management and stakeholders.
The reports from these meetings confirmed NSC examination credibility in Gauteng, meaning that protocols were followed, policies adhered to, excellent security maintained, just on-time material distribution, and smooth collection schedules observed, he said.
“Question papers were distributed and collected smoothly, with timely dissemination to exam venues, ensuring an overall successful process,” Chiloane said.
Chiloane said that despite a few irregularities being reported in each week, none of them impacted negatively on the quality of examination.
Overall, there were fifty-one overall irregularities and incidents which included 45 learners caught with crib notes, 5 learners in possession of cell phones and 1 imposter.
“The vigilance of chief invigilators, invigilators and monitors was commendable, good administrative measures put in place by the Districts to manage irregularities was outstanding,” the minister said.
The department confirmed that marking has been divided into two sessions, namely a session from the 16 to 28 November with the main marking session commencing on 3 December and is expected to conclude on 20 December, across 25 undisclosed centres.
Chiloane said that 10 541 personnel were appointed, for various roles including chief markers, senior markers, and monitors.
In addition, examination assistants and quality assurers were also appointed and allocated to centres in order to ensure smooth processes, with deputy chief and senior markers trained in November for both sessions.
In terms of 2024 online applications, the department said that it was nearing the completion of the placement process for grade 1 and 8 learners.
Chiloane said that the department has placed 99.8% (272 639) of all 305 981 complete applications and await only 0.1% (324) of parents to accept their placement offers; and that the placement of applicants commenced on 4 September 2023 and is expected to close when all applicants are placed.
In conclusion, the MEC said that in order to give parents an opportunity to finalise their applications, the Online Admissions Application System will be open from 11 December 2023 to 15 January 2024 to allow parents to select a school with available space.
INSIDE EDUCATION
