Security measures in place as Matric exams kicks off

The Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga says her department has stepped up security measures to ensure that there is no leaking of exam papers this year.

Motshekga addressed the media the day before the class of 2023 kicked off the matric exams on Monday.

“Umalusi has approved all question papers to be administered in the October/November 2023 Examinations and given the nod to the exams,” she said.

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“We’ve enhanced security measures to prevent paper leaks in all nine provinces. The State Security Agency has also audited these processes,” she said.

She said it was important that Provincial education departments follow standard operating procedures training storage point managers in security protocols.

“Moreover, specific collection times for question papers by chief invigilators have been established to deter early access. Each Provincial education department has its own irregularity committee to anticipate and mitigate crises,” she said.

Load shedding

The Minister contingency plans have been put in place at various school to work around load shedding.

“To mitigate the challenge of load shedding, all departments and schools have devised contingency plans, including backup generators.

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“The Computer Applications Technology (CAT) and Information Technology (IT) Paper 1 examinations were generally conducted this week without power issues, with isolated incidents,” she said.

Numbers

Minister Motshekga said that there were 717 377 candidates registered to participate in the final examinations across 6,898 centres nationwide. This is a decrease from last year’s numbers.

However, there was an increase in the number of part-time learners from 168 631 in 2022 to 181 143 in 2023 (an increase of 12 512).

Free State eyes first place again

Meanwhile, Free State Education Department spokesperson Howard Ndaba affirmed the province is looking to continue its highest-achieving province position in the country.

Ndaba attributes their success to learning camps they established in various districts.

The Free State province led the Class of 2022 with a 88.5% pass rate.