The National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations is in full swing as Grade 12 learners around South Africa participate in the crucial exams. However, quality assurance body Umalusi has noted some concerns related to the 2022 NSC exam season.
Umalusi is concerned that community protests are resulting in learners missing their examinations. This comes after more than 1,000 matric candidates were prevented from accessing their examination centre due to community protests in Mpumalanga.
Arrangements had to be made for approximately 460 candidates in the North-West Province who had to be compensated for lost time, while just over 50 candidates in Gauteng could not write the examination due to community protests.
Umalusi commended the Department of Basic Education (DBE) for making arrangements for the learners who were affected by community protests. This afforded the candidates the opportunity to write their exam after missing them through no fault of their own.
The quality assurance body has also discouraged communities from using the NSC Matric exams as leverage for their protest actions. This as education is a constitutional right and learners have the right to education without any form of hindrance.
The body also noted their concerns around alleged problematic questions in the NSC examination Mathematics Paper 2. The question was labelled as unsolvable by some learners.
Umalusi said they will undertake the standard procedure for dealing with such issues in memoranda standardisation meetings during which problematic questions are moderated.
Depending on the magnitude of the problem, the marks allocated to the question/s may be excluded from the question paper’s total marks or that alternative responses may be accepted.
Another matter that concerned the examination body occurred on 11 November 2022 when the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute’s (SACAI) prematurely released two question papers.
The examination question papers in question were the Physical Science Paper 2 and the Life Sciences Paper 1, which were released days before they were set to be written by matric candidates.
Since the erroneous release of question papers has the potential to put the credibility of the examination at risk, the [South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute] SACAI has withdrawn the papers released in error and will substitute them with backup question paper
The quality assurance body urged assessment bodies and all stakeholders to do all in their power to ensure the integrity of the 2022 national examinations is not compromised.
