Pretoria - Preliminary reports have indicated that Day One of the matric exams have gone smoothly without any hassles countrywide.
"I remain deeply humbled by the commitment displayed by educators, examination personnel and the cooperation of learners to ensure that Day One of the examinations is trouble-free," said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, on Monday.
According to the department, everything went well except for a minor glitch in Mpumalanga, where a learner came to write without having properly registered, examinations went smoothly throughout the country.
The first exam papers, Electronic Technology and German, Portuguese, Hebrew, first and second additional languages, kicked off at 9am.
The second session kicked-off at 2pm with matrics sitting for Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil, Telegu, Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, first and second additional languages as well as a two and half hour Latin paper.
Department spokesperson Hope Mokgatlhe told BuaNews that all provinces had got off to a good start and that all papers had been delivered on time this morning.
A total of 581 573 full time candidates and 38 595 repeat candidates will write 197 papers that will be marked by more than 30 000 markers during the exams.
This is the second year matrics are writing exams based on the National Curriculum Statement (NCS), the phasing in of which was completed last year.
With the NSC, there is no longer Higher and Standard Grades, only one grade of examination paper is set and all learners must choose either mathematics or mathematical literacy. All learners must also take Life Orientation which is assessed internally.
The matric results will be released on 7 January 2010, instead of December, to allow more time to verify and check all results before they are released.
