KZN ‘combat ready’ as 195,000 matrics start exams on Monday

Education officials in KwaZulu-Natal say the department is “combat ready” for the matric exams with no glitches expected despite adverse weather in the province.

Briefing the media on Thursday, education deputy director-general for institutional development Weziwe Hadebe said the weather had affected more than 42 schools.

“Of those schools, 32 are in Mtubatuba and eight are secondary schools. We continue to provide mobile classrooms and repairs are under way. We have urged schools to use classrooms that are not affected.”

A total of 193,779 candidates — 170,441 of them full-time — are expected to sit for the national senior certificate exams which start on Monday.

Education MEC Mbali Frazer expressed optimism that everything is on track. The province has more than 6,710 invigilators to manage exams in 6,343 exam rooms.

“More than 120 question papers total 30-million copies. There will be 282 morning and 27 afternoon sessions in the 2023 exams,” Frazer said.

The province had an 83% pass rate in 2022.

“Much as we started this academic year in a celebratory mood, we understood, as a province, that we needed to work twice as hard to surpass our own success. We knew we needed to compete with ourselves to outdo ourselves and do better than we did in 2022,” said Frazer.

“We wasted no time and hit the ground running with the implementation of district and provincial improvement plans. Our aim is to ensure we pass all candidates who sit the exams. However, the reality is that there are other factors which sometimes make it difficult to pass our learners in the system.”

The department set a target of an 85% pass rate. It had also planned accountability sessions for schools which obtained a 40% and below pass rate in last year’s exams.

Other measures included winter class programmes from June 27 to July 7 and spring boot camps which were aimed at giving extra tuition to pupils in subjects which challenged them.

“We also held a mathematics summit. This was aimed at improving learner performance,” Frazer said.

Department head Nkosinathi Ngcobo said that while load-shedding remained a concern,  plans had been put in place to counter its effects. Generators had been made available to schools. “We are prepared to ensure that nothing prevents the writing of papers.” 

The department had been working hard with the police and community to ensure the safety of schools during the exams. Plans had also been made to prevent exam paper leaks, which included using private security, Ngcobo said.

“We are ready for disaster. We are working with the defence force and choppers have also been made available.”

Frazer called on community protesters to avoid disrupting schools during the examinations and urged them to direct their concerns to the relevant offices.