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Over 880 teachers in Gauteng pulled out of marking matric exams

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Over 880 teachers have pulled out of marking matric examination papers in Gauteng.

Gauteng Education spokesperson Steve Mabona says the markers gave various reasons, including being exposed to the coronavirus and family bereavement.

An unspecified number of them have contracted COVID-19.

“Some could not come because they have positive cases or there were in contacts with positive people so that’s what we have, we were happy that we had started and we have now replaced those who did not come yesterday so we don’t see any challenge when it comes to the marking of the scripts.”

In the video below, Mpumalanga says the province is ready for the marking of the 2020 matric exam papers:

 

On Sunday, Basic Education said it will do whatever it takes to prioritise the safety of the 45 000 examiners expected to start marking the 2020 matric final exams on Monday.

Spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga expressed concern over the impact the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic will have on both the marking of papers and the next academic year.

The department said medical professionals will be on standby at marking centres.

New guidelines for markers have been drawn up in line with alert Level 3 guidelines announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mhlanga said strict screening will also be done at all 180 marking centres.

“It means that we’ve had to do things differently by focusing on safety because it’s the main issue right now. We increased our marking centres but also increased the number of days over which marking will take place in order to ensure that we adhere to social distancing principle, but also to make sure that people are sanitising and wear their masks all the time. It’s important that all of them are staying safe so that marking is not interrupted.”

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