Johannesburg - uMalusi announced on Thursday, during a media briefing in Johannesburg, that it was “all systems go” for the 2016 National Senior Certificate examinations.
Around 815 000 pupils will be sitting for the National Senior certificate examinations for 2016, at 7 000 examination centres across nine provinces.
Umalusi – the SA council for quality assurance in general and further education and training – said the 2016 National Senior certificate examinations will formally begin on 19 October.
CEO of uMalusi, Dr. Rakometsi, warned that there “will be drastic measures taken against any learners, educators and departmental officials who are found guilty of copying, paper leakages and other forms of cheating. We want clean and flawless examinations”.
From 2017 all independent examination centres that are not accredited by uMalusi will not be allowed to administrate any examinations.
“We do this to protect vulnerable learners,” Dr. Rakometsi said.
He said uMalusi had already conducted independent visits to audit the selection of exam markers through the out the country and was presented with a plan by the department of education on how the marking would be done.
“uMalusi supports all initiatives to improve the quality of marking,” Dr. Rakometsi said.
“Every year there are people who try cheat the system, but we have closed any gaps to avoid this from happening. We are confident that we have strengthened our systems.”
While all exam centres have adequate storage and security facilities, high risk facilities with a history of serious irregularities have been assigned newly registered monitors.
African News Agency