Gauteng among six provinces completing matric exam marking ahead of time

Gauteng was among the six provinces that completed the marking of matric examination papers ahead of the scheduled time, the Department of Basic Education announced.

Director of national examinations Priscilla Ogunbanjo at a press briefing on Wednesday in Pretoria announced that Gauteng, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Kwa Zulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape had already completed marking.

The papers were scheduled to be completed on 22 January.

“We would like to congratulate our markers and all those who made sure that we complete our marking against the backdrop of Covid-19 risk alert level 3. We are now finalising the process to ensure that results will be released to our candidates.’’

This despite having more than 2 400 makers withdrawn, out of the 46 024 initial markers.

READ MORE: School of Entrepreneurship creating excitement and gaining momentum

“The province replaced 1 766, which was 70% of those that withdrew, in some cases some provinces did not feel they needed to replace the markers as there had fewer papers than anticipated.’’

About seven markers succumbed to Covid-related health complications, out of 315 makers testing positive for the virus.

“We were hoping that we could go through marking during level 1, but unfortunately, things turned around and we had to mark against the backdrop of alert level 3 with Covid-19 cases increasing,” she said.

“Strict health protocols at the centres ensured that they were not Covid-19 super spreaders.’’

Ogunbanjo said loadshedding also had not severely affect the marking process.

“Six of our centres had generators and we planned around the loadshedding schedule for those that did not.’’

The department was expected to make a presentation of irregularities to the Umalusi council which include the report on two examination papers that were leaked during exams last year for quality assurance in general and further education and training by 12 February.

After that Umalusi would make a pronouncement of possible approval of the results and only then the department would release results.

“The 2020 NSC examinations were unprecedented. We know the circumstances under which those exams took place but we are happy that we were able to have those exams.

“The capacity of the system was stretched. We are not living on another planet, we are living in the same country and world that is experiencing the Covid-19 pandemic. I believe, the mettle of the system has been tested,” Ogunbanjo said.

Basic education director-general Hubert Mweli believed that the completion of marking would give the department enough time to capture the marks and release matric exams by 22 February.

“This gives enough time to capture the marks of each learner and also start the standardization process and getting qualitative inputs from all the provinces,” Mweli said.

“The process looks at how the paper presented itself to learners now that the papers have been marked.

“We will also have curriculum experts that will evaluate that against the curriculum objects, whether, each paper was set according to the curriculum objectives.’’

Mweli said, the department was also expecting the final report of the leaked papers, adding that “’there has been an extensive investigation on the matter”.

Last month the Gauteng high court in Pretoria overturned the decision taken by the education department to have hundreds of matriculants rewrite leaked mathematics and physical science papers.

[Watch Live] Basic Education Director General Mathanzima Mweli briefs media on Examinations marking progress https://t.co/xv8Ypf9ktX

— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) January 20, 2021

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram