Basic Education Department confident that matric examinations will run smoothly
The Department of Basic Education has put final preparations in place and is ready to administer the 2017 Grade 12 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations. DBE, together with provincial education departments, has been hard at work ensuring an appropriate and enabling environment is set to enable seamless administration of the 2017 NSC examinations.
The 2017 NSC Examinations will commence this morning, Monday 23 October 2017 when some candidates write the unofficial languages.
The examination system will however be fully tested on Tuesday 24 October when more than 630,000 candidates will sit (at 9am) for English Paper 1 at Home Language and First Additional Language levels.
Having experienced challenges in the better part of the year, an intervention plan was put in place to support the 1657 Matric learners in secondary schools in the Vuwani region of Limpopo.
The Department of Basic Education concluded intensive Final State of Readiness Visits to the nine Provinces which culminated on 6 October 2017 and also included scheduled engagements with School Principals led by Director-General Mathanzima Mweli with the core message of ensuring universal coverage of material and ensuring the learners are well geared for the 2017 NSC Examinations.
Security and the protection of the integrity of the NSC Examinations has remained a priority. The Department has therefore continued to put significant focus on ensuring that it mitigates risks associated with the storage and movement of examination scripts employing the ‘’Just in Time’’ printing approach. The approach allows for examination scripts to be printed as close as logistically possible to the writing of the examination.
The recent bad weather in KwaZulu-Natal however devastating, has not left a damper on the provinces examination preparations and all centres across the province have been audited by Provincial Education Department Officials and provided the requisite support to ensure full scale compliance and readiness.
A total of 634 527 Full Time and 168 109 Part Time Candidates have been registered and as has been the case since in previous years, KZN has once again presented the highest number of Full Time candidates with 153 624 Candidates while Gauteng, with 41 952 candidates has contributed the most Part Time candidates in the 2017 NSC Examination. In addition the Department has made provision for 3805 Full Time and 544 Part Time Special Needs Candidates with barriers to learning such as Dyslexia, Blindeless and Deafness.
Mathematics Literacy with 356 016, Life Sciences with 356 149, Mathematics with 279 144 and Physical Sciences with 199 874 present some of the highest enrolment subjects for 2017.
As the examinations get into full swing, learners are encouraged to continue to be diligent in their studies and take advantage of the various catch-up and revision lessons available across various platforms. Candidates are encouraged to visit the Departments website, www.education.gov.za, the Departments Facebook Page, DBE SA or follow the Twitter handle, @DBE_SA for links, podcasts and revision lesson times.
The Minister of Basic Education Mrs Angie Motshekga will release the 2017 NSC Examination results on the evening of Thursday 04 January 2018 and candidates will be able to access their results from Friday 05 January 2018 through the Departments website and through the various media outlets through which the results will be made available.
“I wish the best of luck to all the candidates sitting for the examinations this year. Keep your head down, study hard, stay focused and I am confident you will make us proud. After at least 12 years in the education system, you owe it to yourself to put your all into these examinations so that you are able to take advantage of post schooling opportunities, the world is your oyster. Good luck to all of you”, said Minister Motshekga.
Enquiries:
Elijah Mhlanga
Cell: 083 580 8275
Troy Martens
Cell: 079 899 3070
