WITH six days to go before the marking of Grade 12 exam papers is completed, education authorities are satisfied that everything is on track to meet the deadline to release the results in the first week of January.

KwaZulu-Natal MEC for education Senzo Mchunu yesterday embarked on a walkabout at key marking centres in the province, and later said he was "satisfied with the situation".

It was revealed that despite irregularities of under-qualified teachers applying to mark the exams, the department was satisfied that the marking will be completed before the end of next week.

It's alleged that a number of under-qualified teachers, hoping to cash in on the exams, were caught before marking began.

Yesterday Mchunu and provincial head of examinations Barney Mthembu visited the marking centres to monitor progress.

They visited Durban High School, VN Naik in Newlands East and Moola Special School in Phoenix, north of Durban.

Mchunu later said he was impressed by the effort markers were putting into their job.

"We are visiting the marking centres to touch base with the markers. We understand that the job they are doing is very strenuous, and we wanted to check on their progress."

Mchunu said all systems were in place to ensure smooth delivery of the results.

"Everything is going well. I was thrilled by the security arrangements. The impression we got is that the markers are happy," he said.

Mchunu said the ideal was to start identifying the problems faced by markers so that "we come up with other mechanisms to avoid such situations next year".

"We are aware that the centres might not be the same, but we want to ensure that we get proper mechanisms to address certain issues."

The markers themselves were busy and remained unfazed by the presence of the education delegation and the media.

The province has 31 marking centres operated by centre manager responsibility and script, security and catering managers.

Markers work from 7am to 5pm. Matric results are expected to be released on January 7.