Cape Town - The Western Cape Education Department says while load shedding and the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) strike were their greatest challenges, the National Senior Certificate exams were overall successful in the province.
Marking commenced in the province on Wednesday and is expected to conclude December 22.
While exams have ended for thousands of learners, eight candidates were still busy with rewrites.
Seven are retaking the Computer Applications Technology (CAT) practical and one candidate is writing the English First Additional Language Paper 1 on Thursday.
Over 3 300 markers will be working at 11 marking centres for the next few weeks. Over the first two days of marking, they will mark 870 000 scripts in total.
“While our practical exams on October 25 and 26 had a delayed start at some exam centres, candidates were still able to complete the exams successfully. Load shedding did not have a major impact on the written exams, as all venues are required to have sufficient natural light.
“The SANTACO taxi strike in November affected 354 Life Sciences candidates and 415 Geography candidates. Neither of these challenges caused a candidate to miss an exam. This is quite an achievement given that we had nearly 74 000 candidates writing 124 papers over seven weeks,” Education MEC David Maynier said.
The department recorded a total of 15 candidates allegedly bringing cellphones into the exam room, while 14 candidates allegedly brought in unauthorised material or “crib notes”.
They also recorded one incident of alleged copying involving two candidates. Hearings are underway.
Cape Times