The National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations are important for many reasons, including determining which steps a learner can take once they complete school.
Due to the importance of the NSC examinations, Identification Documents (IDs) are required to confirm a student's identity before they can write their examinations. This ensures the right person is writing the examination and not being taken by someone else.
However, some matric candidates encounter challenges when attempting to obtain an ID. This could present further challenges to students when they require the document to write their examinations.
In an attempt to mitigate these challenges, The Department of Home Affairs and The Department of Basic Education (DBE) entered into a Memorandum of understanding in 2010 regarding the mutual cooperation, support and sharing of information.
One of the main aspects of this agreement created provision for the assistance in facilitating access and visits to schools.
The DBE annually provides a list of learners without Identity documents to Home Affairs and the list is shared with the provinces.
Upon the receipt of the above list, provinces prepare schedules to visit schools using Mobile units, where learners who are 16 years and above including matriculants are assisted in applying and in obtaining their Identity documents as a result.
This Memorandum of understanding ensues that learners do not need to visit Home Affairs branches to collect their IDs. This also ensures that learners have IDs when it comes time to write their NSC final school examinations.
