Johannesburg - The Day has arrived for the Class of 2022 to write their final National Senior Certificate exams.
“We can confidently state that it is fully prepared to administer the November 2022 examinations based on the principles of fairness, reliability, validity and integrity,” said the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga.
Motshekga briefed the media on the state of readiness yesterday before the commencement of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams today.
The minister announced that there had been a greater increase in the number of full-time enrolments in 2022 as compared with the previous years.
“We have gone to great lengths to ensure that the examinations happen with no irregularities. The Department of Basic Education has stepped up security across all points in the question paper chain based on a course on a continuous review of all examination processes. In addition, all learners for the NSC exam and their parents have signed a commitment agreement to maintain honesty and not to participate in irregularities,” Motshekga said.
DBE director-general Hubert Mweli said the full-time candidates who will be writing exams was 900 000.
Moses Simelane, chief director for curriculum in the department, said the Class of 2022 was the class that was most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as they only returned to full-time teaching this year.
“This group is actually the most unfit group for the National Senior Certificate examinations,” he said.
Simelane said dating back to 2020 when the matrics were in Grade 10, the department had learner support initiatives such as broadcast lessons, regular lessons, self-study resources and the introduction of remote learning online and virtual schools.
“A number of intervention and support measures were introduced and instituted. There was continuation of lesson plans with activities, videos with lesson recordings, WhatsApp groups between teachers and between teachers and learners, websites both for online platforms with curriculum and assessment materials, virtual teaching sessions, radio lessons provided and for revisions and all other intervention measures,” he said.
In terms of Gauteng, Simelane said an example of learner support included LED boards preloaded with digital content in the form of ebooks, as well as school curriculum multimedia content in the form of digital lessons, study guides and explanation enhancements subject content developed by curriculum specialists and teachers in PDF format. He added that the subjects that were prioritised were maths and English.
Simelane said across the sector, the department implemented remote and digital learning projects of various forms.
“The whole strategy was to make sure that we support the system to increase the use of remote and digital learning modalities,” he said.
DBE further used video lessons that were broadcast online and used the department’s television channel, YouTube and SABC radio station, print media, digital platforms and MTN’s online school YouTube channels.
“I really want to make a special appeal to all of us to rally behind the matric Class of 2022,” said Motshekga.
The Star