Basic Education on annual Mid-Year Matric Examination

Basic Education Department ready to administer first annual 2019 Mid-Year Matric Examination

It’s all systems go for the first ever full mid-year matric examination, which will commence on 2 May 2019 and conclude on 14 June 2019. The examination system has been reconfigured to merge the February/March Supplementary exam and the May/June Senior Certificate examination.

For this reason, the number of candidates who will sit for the 2019 mid-year examination has increased significantly, and will see well over 350 000 registered candidates write the annual examination, as compared to numbers that were lower than 200 000 in the past, for both exams. The results of the mid-year 2019 examination will be released on 02 August 2019.

Due to the national general election on 8 May, the 7 and 9 papers have been shifted to 13 and 14 June 2019.

The mid-year Senior Certificate examination is identical to the November National Senior Certificate examination, and all subjects offered in the NSC examination will be offered in the mid-year examination. Both the NSC and the SC candidates who will write the exam will retain their respective qualification status. All Candidates that write the mid-year Senior Certificate examination, will be allowed to combine subjects passed in the mid-year Senior Certificate examination, based on the requirements for their respective qualifications to obtain either a Senior Certificate or a National Senior Certificate.

The Integrated Examination Computer System has been programmed to be able to assist both categories of candidates to combine the results obtained in various examination sittings to effect an overall pass in their respective qualifications.

The breakdown of registered full time candidates per province is as follows:

The table below indicates registered part time candidates per province, as follows:

A total of 6 581 centres will be used for the writing of the mid-year 2019 examinations, while a total of 35 marking centres have been identified to be used for the marking of the examination.

The following NSC candidates who are eligible have registered to write the mid-year examination:

1. Candidates that wrote the October/November National Senior Certificate examination, but did not meet the requirements of the NSC or meet the requirements of the NSC but wish to improve their performance either in the terms of the subject, or the type of pass obtained.
2. candidates who were indisposed due to ill health or if there is a death in the immediate family, or if for other special reasons the candidate is unable to write one or more question papers in the October/November examination.

In addition, the NSC candidates that write the May/June SC examination, may register to write the subsequent NSC examination in October/November, if necessary. NSC candidates are not limited in the number of examination sittings that they may register to write in order to fulfil the requirements of the qualification. Part-time and repeat candidates that register to write the October/November examination may register to write the mid-year examination of the following year.

Quality Assurance of Marking

To establish the credibility of the marking of the examination across Provincial Education Departments (PEDs), the DBE will quality assure marking via onsite moderation in selected gateway and Technical subjects between 24 June and 3 July 2019. The DBE onsite moderators will attend the Marking Standardisation Meetings in preparation for the moderation of their respective subjects. They will also participate in the training of the Chief Markers and Internal Moderators and mark dummy scripts for authorisation purposes. This will ensure that the onsite moderators have a thorough insight into the marking principles applied and the final approved marking guideline.

Standardisation and Release of Results

The standardisation process of the results of the candidates who will write the June 2019 that are registered for the SC examination will be conducted on the 18th July 2019. The standardisation decisions used for the November 2018 NSC examination will be used to standardise the results of the NSC candidates that will write the June 2019 examination. The results of the mid-year 2019 examination will be released on 02 August 2019.

The Department, together with PEDs are ready to conduct credible examinations. The preparation for the conduct, administration and management of the June 2019 examination is at an advanced stage. All critical processes have been completed and the PEDs are only waiting for the commencement date of the examination.

The department would like to take this time to extend best wishes to all candidates writing the June Examination.

Enquiries:​    
Elijah Mhlanga
Cell: 083 580 8275