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- So far, 83 of the 216 NSC questionnaires have been written.
- The DBE will release the final exam results on February 22, after the schools have reopened.
- The department says the exams work smoothly, but some human elements cannot be controlled or regulated.
Ghostwriter attempts, nursery rhymes, candidates not submitting their answer sheets, and incorrect registrations – these are some of the challenges that the final National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams have faced since the start on November 5.
This was announced by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) at a press conference in Pretoria on Wednesday.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga informed the media, along with Director General Mathanzima Mweli and Chief Director of National Assessment and Public Examination, Rufus Poliah, following a meeting with the Council of Ministers of Education (CEM) in the morning.
The CEM had given him an update on the progress of the exams, also reporting on the unfortunate leak of the Math Test 2 questionnaire.
Motshekga said 83 of the 216 documents had been written as of Wednesday.
He said everything had gone well, except for the riots caused by the protests and unpleasant weather conditions in parts of KwaZulu-Natal.
READ | Positive matrices for Covid-19 in Gauteng to write exams in quarantine in Nasrec
The department said some schools experienced power outages and technical problems during the Computer Applications Technology and Information Technology exam. However, the candidates were transferred to alternative locations or compensated for lost time.
Protest actions were also reported in the Western Cape, but the schools continued with the assessments.
The department said it was in the process of establishing whether all the candidates, who were affected by the protests, wrote.
Affected candidates, who were late for exams, were allowed to write.
The department said that eight candidates at one of the centers wrote the home language in English, rather than the additional first language, while at another center, one candidate left the exam room without returning his answer sheet.
An incorrect questionnaire was also opened in another center, but it was immediately detected and corrected.
Assessments are being carried out in 8,200 centers in all provinces, with 80,000 supervisors.
Two cases of attempts to write ghosts were reported.
Poliah said:
A phenomenon that we had previously, that seems to resurface again, is what we call impostors (ghost candidates). Technically, what happens in this situation is when someone else decides to write on behalf of the registered candidate. But, in both cases, they were immediately identified upon entering the exam room because they have to present their identification. In fact, one of them was apprehended and arrested by the police and the other managed to disappear.
Some candidates were also reported to have entered the exam room with cell phones and crib notes.
The department noted that, however, there was a reduction in candidates who came to the centers with cradle notes.
He added that, in Gauteng, the provincial department had put measures in place in the middle of a taxi strike.
Candidates who were late were allowed into the test center and others were also arranged to write in schools near their homes.
The bus operators were also advised to transport the candidates in uniform at no cost.
The department said it continued to maintain its Covid-19 protocol to ensure that the spread of the virus was minimized in the centers, adding that candidates who test positive are being monitored daily.
Candidates with Covid-19
On November 12, 93 candidates were reported to have tested positive: 53 in the Eastern Cape, 23 in the Free State, 10 in the Western Cape, and seven in Gauteng.
This was the highest number reported, Poliah said, adding that, on other days, in most sessions, two to five candidates tested positive.
Candidates who had Covid-19-related symptoms wrote in isolation, while those who tested positive also wrote separately. Some wrote in quarantine sites and others in suitable places.
“We have a very rigorous monitoring system, with more than a million students (candidates) writing, and more than 8,000 centers. We ensure, as a minimum threshold, that 70% of our centers are supervised.
“In fact, some of our provinces have gone beyond 70% to monitor almost 100% of the centers daily,” said Poliah.
Mweli said the 93 candidates who tested positive could be viewed within the context of multiple variables, one of which was that community spread was increasing in the areas where they lived.
“It is in the context of the growing infections in the communities because these students (candidates) come from communities where infections are occurring.
And when we spoke to health experts, they weren’t surprised. They said “these are the critical points of the country because that’s where these students come from.”
Scoring for the NSC exams will begin on January 4, 2021 and results will be released on February 22.
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