Limpopo matric markers ahead of schedule

The Limpopo basic education department is celebrating the end of marking the 2021 National Senior Certificate examination papers before schedule.

Limpopo MEC for basic education Polly Boshielo told The Citizen more than 106 000 examination papers for full-time and 35 000 examination papers for part-time candidates had been marked in 609 examination centres across the province.

“The marking of our 2021 National Senior Certificate examination papers was successfully concluded in the province on Monday,” she said.

The deadline for provinces to complete marking was yesterday, according to basic education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga. A few other provinces also completed marking before deadline.

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“The process was divided into three sessions since the beginning of this month.”

Boshielo said her department had appointed teams of markers, senior markers, deputy chief markers and internal moderators placed in 29 centres in the province. They had worked on the scripts of the 106 564 registered full-time and 35,596 part-time candidates.

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Visit The Citizen’s matric portal to view your results and see who South Africa’s top performers are.

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Head of department Onica Dederen was also upbeat about the completion of the marking process. Dederen expressed her satisfaction with the process and thanked markers for what she said was a diligent work.

“I am happy that we were able to put systems in place that allowed us to complete the task ahead of schedule,” she said.

“We thank our markers and all officials who saw to the success of this demanding task.

“We are now getting into the process of finalising the capturing of marks and standardisation.

ALSO READ: When will be the matric exams results be released?

“We believe all will go as planned until we release the provincial results on 21 January.”

The province had hoped to achieve a matric pass rate of over 70% this year. Apart from the havoc caused by Covid, there were not any serious hitches that disturbed the smooth running of learning and teaching in Limpopo.

According to the basic education department, Limpopo produced a 69.4% matric pass rate in 2018, 73.2% in 2019 and 68.2% in 2020.

A Grade 12 pupil, Natasha Makgopa of Masopha Secondary School in Bolobedu near Mokwakwaila, said she cannot wait to get her matric results.

“I have worked very hard this year,” she said.

“I had sleepless nights, studying and revising all the work. I am hoping to ace most of my subjects and go to varsity next year.”