KZN Education Department gears up for a better Matric result year

Introduction
The conduct of the 2017 National Senior Certificate examination will commence on  October 23 and conclude on November 28. The Computer Application Technology and Information Technology practical papers will be written on October 16-17.The Department of Education is ready for the administration of this examination. All processes from the registration of examination centres to the release of results have been planned for.

2. Examination Centres
For the 2017 National Senior Certificate examination the Department of Education has registered 1688 public school examination centres and 69 Independent school examination centres. All these centres will host the conduct of the National Senior Certificate examination.

3. Registration of candidates
The registration of full-time candidates was completed on March 152017 and the registration of part time candidates was completed on April 30. The total numbers of candidates who are registered for the National Senior Certificate examination is 193 768. Out of this figure 153 624 are full time candidates and 40 318 are part time candidates.

The majority of the candidates who will write the National Senior Certificate examination are girl learners. There are 85 299 full time females, 68 325 full time males, 24 126 part time females and 15 845 part time male candidates. The district with the largest female enrolment is King Cetshwayo and the least female enrolment is Harry Gwala. The subjects that have a high female enrolment are Accounting, Business Studies, Economics, English First Additional Language, Geography, History, IsiZulu Home Language, Life Sciences, Mathematical Literacy, Mathematics, Tourism, and Physical Sciences.

3.1 Progressed Candidates

The District with the highest male enrolment for progressed candidates is Zululand with 1481 candidates and lowest enrolment is Harry Gwala with 522 candidates. The highest female enrolment is in Umzinyathi District with a total of 1408 and the lowest enrolment is in Harry Gwala with a total of 549 candidates. The total enrolment for progressed learners in grade 12 for 2017 is 25 979.

4. Subject entries
The province has entered 56 subjects for the 2017 examination. This includes 24 languages at Home Language level, First Additional Level and Second Additional level. The largest entries are in Afrikaans, English, IsiZulu and IsiXhosa. There are also eastern and western languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Urdu, Tamil, Hindi, German and French.

There are entries in 32 content subjects. The largest entries are in English First Additional Language, IsiZulu Home Language, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy, Geography, Business Studies, Physical Sciences, Tourism, Economics, Accounting and History.

5. Special needs candidates
The concessions for the 2017 National Senior Certificate examinations have been finalised. They include various types of learning barriers such as blindness, deafness, dyslexia etc. All the preparations for specialised question papers and other types of concessions have been prepared for candidates with learning barriers to participate fairly in the 2017 National Senior Certificate examinations.

6. Preparation of learners for the examination
The province announced its intervention strategy programme for the class of 2017 and beyond. In preparing schools and the candidates for the examination the province has developed relevant intervention strategy programmes at district, circuit and school level. The intervention strategy programmes were informed by the feedback from the 2016 diagnostic reports in all subjects and also common tests in 2017. The Department of Education implemented various intervention strategies like the writing of common tests, winter classes, boot camps, NSLA mandate etc. The province has also used the School Based Assessment (SBA) feedback to inform teaching, learning and assessment interventions at school level.

All districts have been involved in Saturday revision classes which were focusing on Accounting, Mathematics and Physical Sciences. The Radio broadcast revision lessons that started in August are ongoing until each subject is written. The focus of the broadcast lessons is on Accounting, Agricultural Sciences, Business Studies, Economics, Geography, History, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy, Physical Sciences and English FAL. All these subjects are broadcast through Ukhozi FM and the 48 Community Radio Stations.

The Spring vacation revision lessons were conducted between  October 1-6 and they targeted three levels of performance, viz;
Potential High flyers
0% – 29% schools
30% – 60% schools
The focus was on Accounting, Economics, English, Geography, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy and Physical Sciences.

The Spring revision classes were organised according to:
Residential learner camps
Clustered schools day classes
Stand-alone day classes

7. Selection of Markers
The selection of Markers was done from during July and August, For the marking of the 2017 National Senior Certificate examination the Department of Education will be appointing 7862 Markers, 1513 Senior Markers, 201 Deputy Chief Markers, 68 Chief ,Markers, 27 Centre Managers and 27 Deputy Centre Managers. After the selection process there were two other processes. The first one was auditing by Umalusi to confirm that the selection criteria was complied with. The second audit was done by the Department of Basic Education to confirm that the selection criteria were not compromised. The letters of appointment was released on 29 September 2017.

8. Selection of personnel to support the marking process
For the support of the marking process the Department of Education has finalised the reprocesses for the recommendations of 1437 Examination Assistants (EA’s), 146 Administration Assistants, 27 script control managers and 27 Administration Managers.

9. Preparations for Invigilation
The training of Invigilators was done at circuit level. The district core teams were trained by the Provincial core team on  August 31. The 191 circuits trained the Chief Invigilators and Invigilators in September and the training took place in circuits. All the trained Invigilators are appointed in writing. The Department of Education has also prepared an “Invigilators handbook” so that all Invigilators maintain the same good standard of vigilance and administration of the examination session. Subject teachers will not invigilate the subjects that they teach.

10. Monitoring
Internal monitoring will be the responsibility of the office of the Head of Department, the Top Management, Head Office staff and District staff. External monitoring will be the responsibility of the Department of Basic Education and Umalusi. The province has trained 1151 District Monitors for deployment to the 1759 examination centres.. The Monitors will be trained by the district core teams to ensure a common standard. Head Office monitors will be trained on 13 October 2017. The provincial examinations’ component monitored the training programme in all the twelve districts and provided support where it was required. The Department of Education has also prepared a “Monitors handbook” so that all Monitors maintain the same good standard of monitoring of the examination session. The handbook will help the Monitors to understand their mandate and to provide support in cases where the Chief Invigilators need it.
11. Marking
The Province will use 27 marking centres for the 2017 National Senior Certificate marking to host the Markers and the support staff. The Marking will commence on  December 1and conclude on  December 15. The marking centres will open on November 29.

12. Capturing of marks
The process of capturing marks will take place concurrently with the marking process. . The examination system will close on December 17. There after the Department of Basic Education and SITA will process the data. The conclusion of the data processing will be followed by the standardisation of results which will take place on December 23. Thereafter the approval of results will be announced by Umalusi.

13. Release of results
After the approval of results the districts will do the final checking from December 26 to December 28. The statement of results will be printed between 1 January 2018 and 3 January 2018. The statements of results will be sent to districts on 4 January 2018. On 5 January 2018 the candidates will collect their results from the examination centers where they wrote the 2017 National Senior Certificate examination. The systems administration office will attend to resulting queries after the release of statements of results.

14. The release of results function
The function for the release of results will take place on 5 January 2018. The office of the MEC for Education in KwaZulu-Natal, the office of the Head of Department, the office of the Senior General Manager (Curriculum) will finalise all the logistics of the release of results. The tentative venue for the release of results is the International Convention Center (ICC) in Durban.

15. Remarking of the 2017 National Senior Certificate examination
After the release of results on 5 January 2018 candidates who are not satisfied with their results in certain subjects will be given an opportunity to apply for remarking. This right to appeal the National Senior Certificate Examination results is contained in policy for the administration of the examinations. The closing date for re-marking is 19 January 2018.

16. Supplementary examinations
The closing date for the registration for the 2017 supplementary examination is 19 January 2018. The capturing of entries will be completed on 29 January 2018. The examination will commence on 19 February 2018 and conclude on 29 March 2018.

The MEC for Education in KwaZulu-Natal honourable Mthandeni Dlungwana and the Head of Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal Dr Enoch Nzama would like to wish all matriculants well with their examinations.