KZN 'combat ready' as almost 195,000 matric students start exams on Monday

Education officials in KwaZulu-Natal say the department is “combat ready” for the matric exams with no glitches amid adverse weather conditions which have plagued the province recently.

Briefing 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 was 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,” said Frazer.

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, 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 the 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.

The department had also planned accountability sessions for schools which obtained a 40% and below pass rate in last year's exams.

Other measures included the winter classes programmes from June 27 to July 7 and the spring boot camps.

The boot camps were intended to give extra tuition to pupils in subjects which often challenged them.

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

She thanked teachers and unions for their dedication to their duties.

“Organised labour not only displays interest to educators, but [also] for the wellbeing of academic excellence of a child.”

Head of department Nkosinathi Ngcobo said while load-shedding remained a concern they had come up with plans to counter its effects.

Generators had been made available to schools. “We are prepared to ensure that nothing prevents writing of papers,” said Ngcobo.

The department had been working hard with police and the 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.

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

Frazer called on community protesters to avoid disrupting schools during the exams.

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