DOE cancels matric marker appointments

The KZN department of education has withdrawn the appointment of newly appointed matric examination markers.

The department announced yesterday that the appointments of all 9500 markers, appointed two weeks ago, would be annulled after an “unfortunate system error”. Education officials claim appointment letters were printed and issued to the wrong people because of the system error. Apparently teachers who did not meet necessary requirements to mark matric papers were appointed.

Interviews for 8426 markers, 1610 senior markers, 290 deputy chief markers and 79 chief markers will now start afresh.

Marking is supposed to begin on December 4 in 21 marking centres around KZN.

Newly appointed education MEC Peggy Nkonyeni said there is no reason to panic but parents and school governing bodies are not impressed.

The KZN parent’s association has questioned the department’s organisation skills, since they had a year to prepare for the examinations.

In a press release the DOE said it is currently re-verifying the list of applicants.

“It also needs to be noted that each provincial education department uses its own computer based marker data management system, and therefore the technical error that occurred, is restricted to KwaZulu-Natal province only. The department is committed to ensuring that the marking of the 2013 NSC examination is credible, fair and reliable.”