Pretoria – Matrics, who didn't make it the first time around, are proving that if at first you don’t succeed, you can definitely pick yourself up and try again.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Friday said there has been great interest in the department’s Second Chance Matric Programme, which was launched on 6 January. Registration for participation, however, was only open to learners that attempted the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations in 2015.
Candidates who did not meet the NSC requirements post 2008 (excluding the 2015 candidates) will be able to participate in the programme in 2017.
Minister Motshekga on Friday said the aim of the programme is to provide support to learners who wrote the 2015 matric examinations and qualified to write one or two subjects in the supplementary examinations in February and March 2016.
Support is being offered in mathematics, maths literacy, life sciences, physical sciences, geography, business studies and economics.
Briefing the media after a Council of Education Ministers (CEM) meeting in Pretoria, Minister Motshekga said the council looked at several developments within the education sector. The CEM consists of the Minister, Deputy Minister, all nine Education MECs, as well as the senior management of the department.
Minister Motshekga said provinces are very supportive of the Second Chance Matric Programme and stakeholders have provided the necessary support.
A total of 799 306 candidates registered for the 2015 NSC exams, with 667 925 full-time and 131 381 part-time learners. The national pass rate was 70.7%.
Registration for the supplementary exams closed on 20 January. Exams will be written from 10 February to 17 March.
“We have 82 743 candidates who have registered to sit for the supplementary exams. The Eastern Cape has the highest enrolment at 22 268, Limpopo has 17 000, while Gauteng has 10 000. KwaZulu-Natal has 8 600 candidates registered to sit for exams.
“We urge all those who will be writing to prepare sufficiently to ensure they succeed this time,” said the Minister.
Going forward, the CEM is looking at new ways to do supplementary exams.
“CEM is exploring doing away with supplementary examinations as we know them. We are looking at the implications of having a fully-fledged examination to be administered in the middle of the year with no restrictions, as it is presently the case with supplementary exams which allow only for two subjects.
“If all goes well, we should implement this in the near future. We want to afford learners a second chance to sit for their exams with support from the department to ensure that they succeed,” said the Minister.
Annual National Assessment
Minister Motshekga said the marking of the Annual National Assessments (ANA) tests will be done by teachers at schools and should be completed by the end of January.
The Minister said a comprehensive report on participation rates across provinces will be available to CEM members in February.
Schools were instructed to write ANAs between 26 November and 4 December 2015 after the mediation process with the teacher unions did not reach an agreement.
“CEM received a progress report on the administration of the ANAs and were satisfied that a good sample participated in the assessments,” said the Minister.
She said a task team has been set up to undertake the remodelling of ANAs, and has been holding monthly meetings from September to December 2015 to finalise the preliminary ground work on the re-design process.
“The report to CEM is that the team is hard at work and that CEM can look forward to presentation on the outcomes of the work being done in the near future.
“CEM was pleased with the progress made with regards to the remodelling and with co-operation we are getting from stakeholders in the sector towards this process,” said the Minister. - SAnews.gov.za
