The department of Basic Education (DBE) has postponed the May/June Amended Senior Certificate (old matric) and National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination.
The Director General of the DBE Mathanzima Mweli says the department has agreed that the rewrites should be merged with the November 2020 examination.
The DBE says the postponed examinations were supposed to be written by more than 350 000 part-time candidates, who include those who did not meet the pass requirements in the 2019 final exams as well as those who sought to rewrite to improve their marks.
Mweli has written a letter to heads of the Provincial Education Departments confirming the changes.
“The advent of the COVID-19 virus has led to the early closure of schools during the first term and the declaration of a 21-day lockdown by the President of the Republic of South Africa, commencing from 26 March and concluding on 16 April 2020. The lockdown has since been extended until Thursday, 30 April 2020. This has resulted in a disruption to schooling and hence the writing of May/June 2020 examinations has to be re-scheduled,” says Mweli.
POSTPONED: Matric Rewrite Examinations for May/June pic.twitter.com/sWutiFu0F5
— Elijah Mhlanga (@ElijahMhlanga) April 18, 2020
DBE says the details regarding the merged June and November examination will be communicated in due course. “Candidates will be informed regarding registration, examination centres, and timetables.”
It has urged all candidates to continue with their preparations, stating that learning and revision material had been made available on the department’s website.
School vandalism slated
Meanwhile, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has once again expressed concern over the vandalism of schools in the country, saying this will have a negative impact on the implementation of the recovery plan once the COVID-19 lockdown is lifted.
About 397 schools have been vandalised since the start of the nationwide lockdown.
The damage of school property includes torching of schools and the theft of learning and teaching equipment. Nutrition centres are also targets.
“It is really unfortunate that criminals in our communities could destroy the infrastructure of their own children. We applaud the work done by the police and we hope that more arrests will be made. We want to see the arrest and prosecution of every single criminal responsible for this kind of behavior,” says Motshekga.
This has become a state of emergency now: pic.twitter.com/264XRHvNfF
— Elijah Mhlanga (@ElijahMhlanga) April 17, 2020
