Matric exams: President Ramaphosa gives Grade 12s message of inspiration

The 2024 matrics will tackle their final schooling hurdle with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s blessing.

Matric exams begin on Monday, 21 October, with nearly 900,000 Grade 12s sitting to earn their national senior certificate.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has everything in place as they prepare to ensure smooth sailing until the results are released in January.

Message from Ramaphosa

The President took a moment on Sunday to give the pupils one last pep-talk before their final push.

“I’d like to wish all the matriculants in our country, who start their examinations on Monday, a great deal of luck,” he stated.

“Matric is quite a challenging exam, but I know that our matriculants are up to it. You’ve all been working very hard on preparing for these exams, so I wish you the best of luck.

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“Many who have written these exams before you have always done well and I know you will not disappoint, you will also do extremely well.

“Get those distinctions and get those passes. Good luck,” the President concluded.  

2023 matric results

The DBE will have 882,000 pupils sitting for the NSC, while 16,400 Grade 12s will write the Independent Examination Board exams.

The 2024 cohort will be aiming to improve on 2023’s 82.9%, which was up from 80.1% in 2022. Each province’s 2023 results were:

• Free State: 89%
• KZN: 86.4%
• Gauteng: 85.4%
• North West: 81.6%
• Western Cape: 81.5%
• Eastern Cape: 81.4%
• Limpopo: 79.5%
• Mpumalanga: 77%
• Northern Cape: 75.8%

Marker shortages

Meanwhile, examination board Umalusi held a briefing earlier in the month stating that their was a marker shortage for three key subjects.

For the DBE exams, Umalusi needed more markers for History, English home language and both Afrikaans home and secondary language papers.

Contingencies are in place, with Umalusi to conduct a fresh recruitment drive before considering staggered marking or extended marking sessions.  

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