All ready for matric exams
ALL is on track for the start of the matric exams, says the KwaZulu-Natal provincial education department.
Pupils will write practical papers for computer application technology today and information technology tomorrow.
The department said in a statement yesterday that it had put in place various intervention strategy programmes at district, circuit and school level to ensure that matric pupils were prepared for the exams.
The department is hoping to improve on the 69.5% matric pass rate that the province achieved in 2016.
It said these programmes were structured around the feedback received in diagnostic reports in 2016 and included winter classes and boot camps.
There were also Saturday classes which focused on accounting, maths and physical science, and there are ongoing radio broadcast revision lessons on various subjects that started in August.
According to statistics released by the department, there will be 153 624 full-time candidates and 40 318 part-time candidates writing the exams.
The majority of candidates will be girls.
The total enrolment for progressed pupils – those who were promoted to Grade 12 without meeting all the pass requirements – is 25 979.
The National Teachers’ Union deputy president, Allen Thompson, said although this had been a trying year for the province, pupils were prepared for the exams.
“Teachers have done all in their power to prepare their learners despite schools being seriously understaffed with a majority of the quintile 1 and 2 schools having not received the allocated ‘norms and standards’ learner allocations,” he said.
The department said marking of scripts was expected to be concluded on December 18 with the release of results expected on January 5.