Marking for the final matric exams across all nine provinces commenced on 10 December 2022 and is expected to conclude on 22 December 2022.
The Department of Basic Education and Training (DBE) reported that there are over 100 marking centres across all nine provinces, where up to 53,926 marking moderators have been assigned to carry out the marking process.
During last week, the DBE concluded its evaluation on the readiness of the marking centres ahead of the marking process and confirmed that the various centres are ready for the 10-day process to begin.
However, as the country continues to experience ramped up loadshedding and Eskom citing a high number of breakages, the department still fears that disruptions may occur at certain marking centres.
The DBE spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga says that no exam centres were affected by last week’s power outages during the exam rewrites that took place.
Mhlanga elaborated that the department has put several measures in place to ensure that marking continues smoothly in the event of rolling power-cuts and other unexpected disturbances.
The majority of marking centres have resources and can provide uninterrupted power supplies even when there is loadshedding, which means they’ve got generators or other alternative resources for when loadshedding does occur.
Although the department has put plans in place to prevent any disturbances, challenges may arise when marks need to be captured onto the system, as electricity is required to carry out that procedure.
“The biggest problem is when the capturing has to take place because that’s the most sensitive part of the job that needs to be done so carefully and when all the marks are entered into computers, it’s sent off to the department.” says Mhlanga.
To ensure that all marking facilities have the necessary resources to tackle any disruptions the department had to allocate additional funds to accommodate all the marking centres.
“We’ve had to think about additional expenditure to make sure each and every centre has a generator and enough fuel to run it as well. Loadshedding is costly, as the costs have become more that what would normally be the case.”
The department has increased the security measures and will monitor marking in various centres throughout the 10-day periods to make sure that the centres are secured and safe.
The 2022 matric results are expected to be announced on 20 January 2023.
