The Department of Basic Education wishes to inform the public that the education system is ready for the start of the Grade 12 National Senior Certificate examinations that begin on 25 October 2010. 642 691 learners have registered to write the Grade 12 NSC examinations this year and this represents an increase of 22 980 compared to December 2009. This figure of 642 691 comprises 562 473 full time candidates and 80 218 part time candidates. The number of candidates per province is indicated in the table below:
|
Province |
NSC candidates |
NSC candidates |
Total number of |
Total number of |
|
Eastern Cape |
70 852 |
11 141 |
15 |
3 840 |
|
Free State |
29 094 |
2 022 |
16 |
1 965 |
|
Gauteng |
94 546 |
22 852 |
9 |
7 800 |
|
KwaZulu-Natal |
131 379 |
19 990 |
32 |
9 500 |
|
Limpopo |
93 806 |
9 529 |
19 |
4 893 |
|
Mpumalanga |
55 885 |
4 684 |
17 |
3 500 |
|
Northern Cape |
10 765 |
1 281 |
3 |
851 |
|
North West |
31 395 |
2 672 |
14 |
2 725 |
|
Western Cape |
46 861 |
6 047 |
2 |
3 800 |
| |
562 473 |
80 218 |
127 |
38 874 |
At the Council of Education Ministers’ meeting held in Pretoria on 07 October 2010, the Minister was assured by all provincial departments that the necessary administrative systems had been put in place to ensure the smooth running of the 2010 NSC examinations.
From 16 October until 15 November 2010, provincial education departments will capture the school based assessment marks of all candidates. This process will be monitored by the national Department.
From 13 October to 15 October 2010, some 90 000 Grade 12 learners wrote their NSC examination papers in practical subjects.
On 25 October 2010 the NSC examinations will formally commence. The examinations period will end on 03 December 2010. During this period 198 examination papers will be written in 39 subjects in approximately 8000 examination centres. The Department will monitor the conduct of the examinations in conjunction with the provincial education departments.
In the case of Mpumalanga, the department has taken over the management of examinations in the province. Ten officials have been deployed from the national department to lead the process in the province.
Marking guidelines for use in the marking of the question papers will be discussed and standardised in 130 meetings hosted nationally in Pretoria. At these meetings the Department together with national examiners and chief markers from the Provincial Education Departments and the Umalusi moderators will interrogate the marking guidelines to ensure that they accurately reflect the responses demanded of all questions.
Marking of the examination scripts will commence in all provinces other than Gauteng, on 04 December 2010 until 15 December 2010. Gauteng has adopted a staggered approach and will therefore commence marking on 19 November 2010. The national Department will monitor the marking process and will deploy moderators to marking centres to ensure that quality marking is implemented across all marking centres.
On 21 December 2010 the National Examinations Irregularities Committee (NEIC) will meet and will hand over its report on 22 December to the Director-General to be submitted to the Minister, for submission to Umalusi.
On 24 December 2010 Umalusi will convene the standardisation meeting where the performance in each subject will be analysed statistically and qualitatively to ensure that the current performance is in keeping with performance in previous years. From 24 December until 30 December 2010 the checking of the preliminary results will take place, involving Umalusi, the national and provincial education departments.
On 30 December 2010 the Umalusi Council will convene a meeting to approve the NSC results and will hold a press conference where a declaration on the integrity and credibility of the results will be made. The approval is based on reports from various quality assurance initiatives focussing on the examination system. Special attention is paid to irregularities that may compromise examinations.
From 03 to 05 January 2011 the Statements of Results will be distributed to schools by districts. The official release of the results will take place on 06 January 2011 at 06h00. This release will be followed by a technical briefing to the media and the Minister’s press conference.Results will be available to learners at schools from 08h00.
The closing date for applications for remarks and rechecks of the examination scripts if they are not satisfied with their results is 21 January 2011. The closing date for applications for supplementary examinations is 24 January 2011.
The certificates for the 2010 examination will be issued by Umalusi in May 2011, after they have verified all individual results of candidates.
The Department of Basic Education has reviewed all examination systems and processes and has improved aspects of the system that warranted such improvements and therefore the DBE is confident that the 2010 NSC examination will be successfully administered.
Enquiries:
Granville Whittle
Cell: 072 1489575
Source: Department of Education
