A number of changes will be made to the supplementary National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations and its structure in South Africa. Currently, a student who fails or wishes to rewrite a finals paper must write a set of supplementary exam papers in March of the following year.
From 2019 onwards, however, the regulations will be amended so and the month for resits changed to June. This applies to students writing final Matric exams next year and onwards.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) states that these changes are being made in response to the problem of many learners failing to turn up in March for the resits. “We have noted that on average around 40 000 learners who enroll for supplementary examinations every year do not turn up to write the examinations,” the Department says. “This results in massive wasteful expenditure.”
The Department also explains that the new system will give learners enough time to revise their work thoroughly and be as prepared as possible for the supplementary exams.
“By having these examinations in June, there will adequate time for revision and learners can make use of the comprehensive support material provided [by] the Second Chance matric support program,” the DBE said. “This will also allow learners to the opportunity to rewrite as many subjects as they want as opposed to the current two subjects allowed.”
In 2018, the number of learners who wrote supplementary exams and obtained the NSCs increased from 401 435 to 411 523.
In September, the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, announced that South African schools will also have new and interesting subjects as options in the future.
These include Kiswahili, Marine Sciences and Coding.
READ: Possible new subjects for SA schools
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