SA Education minister to release matric results on January 5; welcomes Umalusi approval
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga will release the National Senior Certificate results on January 5, her department said on Wednesday, as she welcomed quality control group Umalusi’s statement that after a group copying scandal in 2014, this year’s examination process had been fair and credible.
“We welcome the acknowledgement by Umalusi on the ‘vastly improved’ vigilance with regards to protecting the integrity of the examinations after the group copying scandal of 2014,” the department said.
This year’s exams was marked by paper leakages in Limpopo, which ultimately spilled over to Gauteng and Mpumalanga, but the exam leak was largely contained and pupils in affected areas were required to rewrite the Life Sciences papers.
The education department noted that Umalusi, the country’s Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training, had also congratulated the department on improved marking and marker training processes.
“The Minister, Mrs Angie Motshekga will therefore announce results for the class of 2015 on the 5th of January 2016 and learners can get their results from their school or examination centre on the morning of the 6th January 2016.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Umalusi had also declared that the 2015 matric results showed a drop compared to 2014.
According to the department, in total 674,232 full-time and 127,456 part-time candidates sat for the exams.
Umalusi council chairperson, Professor John Volmink, said the performance of the progressed learners – the policy which prevents learners being retained in the same phase for more than four years – was one of the key factors which had led to an increase in the failure rate in 2015.
He noted an increased level of cognitive demand of the question papers which Umlasi took as an indication of improved quality, but did not accept this as a reason for the lower pass rate.
However, Umalusi concluded that: “Notwithstanding the areas of concern requiring improvement we are satisfied that the examinations on the whole were fair, valid and credible.
“We commend DBE for running a successful and credible examinations process. Accordingly, we hereby approve the release of the results of the National Senior Certificate Examinations administered by the Department of Basic Education.
ANA
(File photo)