It's official, we've come to the end of the 2022 final matric exam period. This exam period has however had it's bumps as South Africa experiences protests and other disruptions.
A total of 753 964 full-time and 167 915 part-time candidates were registered to write these examinations. This is the largest cohort of candidates to date. There are 6 912 examination centres around the country which will administer 193 question papers.
On the final day, practical exams take place for Computer Application Technology (CAT) and Information Technology (IT), for three hours. Spokesperson for the Department of Basic Education (DBE), Elijah Mhlanga, has however expressed concern that loadshedding will disrupt the exams as South Africa experiences stage 4.
Taxi strikes, service delivery protests in various provinces and unsolvable questions brought about disruptions to this exam season. Some provinces also experienced loadshedding, technical glitches, floods, pregnancies, and issues with certain school management staff abusing their power also contributed to this.
The Department has however made provisions for learners who missed their exams due to the events mentioned above in the form of matric rewrites. “The DBE can confirm that the 8th of December has been set aside as a date for the rewrites for different subjects in provinces where there were valid reasons,” said Mhlanga.
The department has assessed the requests from various Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) and in instances where valid reasons were presented, which were not of the learners doing, the DBE and Umalusi granted permission for rewrite opportunities in the following selected subjects:
- Mathematics Paper 2: Mpumalanga Department of Education
- Mathematical Literacy Paper: Eastern Cape Department of Education
- Mathematical Literacy P2: Mpumalanga Department of Education, Eastern Cape Department of Education and Northwest Department of Education
- Economics P1: Gauteng Department of Education
- English First Additional Language Paper 1: Limpopo Department of Education and Western Cape Department of Education
Marking of the exam papers is set to commence on 10 December 2022. Matric results are set to be released on 20 January 2023.
