The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) wishes grade 12 learners well with the 2012 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations that are starting from Monday.
The 2012 cohort of grade 12s were born in 1994, the year that ushered democracy in South Africa. The spotlight is on these learners to see how they carry the legacy of Nelson Mandela.
This year, 91 512 fulltime and 36 837 part-time learners have registered for the matric examinations.
The exams are a huge logistical exercise where over 1.2-million papers are written in 905 centres throughout the province. We have 4 280 invigilators and 8 320 markers in Gauteng. The exams end on 28 November 2012 and marking starts on 9 November up to 14 December
2012.
Since February, the department has run extra classes in priority schools targeting nearly 50 000 learners. These learners have attended the Secondary School Improvement Programme (SSIP) every Saturday and during school holidays. SSIP subjects are Maths, Maths Literacy, Physical Science, Life Science, Accountancy, English First Additional Language, History, Geography, Business Studies and Economics.
In October we held 118 walk-in final matric revision camps as well as 34 residential camps. The aim was to help learners with final revision, exam technique and time management.
We are hopeful that these efforts, including learner dedication and motivation, will bear fruit. We wish to thank educators who tirelessly prepared learners for this day, starting from their first day in primary school.
Results will be released on 3 January 2013. While we cannot predict the performance of learners, we remain optimistic that we have given them the best possible chance we could to pass.
Our target for matric is an 80% pass rate by 2014. We reached this target in 2011 and we hope to consolidate our performance at these levels and make marginal improvements from here. We would also like to see a qualitative increase in the pass rate. The bachelor pass rate in Gauteng has risen from 29.3% in 2009, to 33.9% in 2010, and 35.2% in 2011.
Examinations are a stressful time for learners and we urge parents and friends to be supportive during this period. If any learner wishes to talk to someone, they can speak to their teacher or an adult they can confide in or phone Lifeline on 0861 322 322.
For more information contact:
Charles Phahlane
Tel: 011 355 1530
Cell: 071 860 4496
