The Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi) plays a crucial role in ensuring the quality of South Africa's education system, including the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams. Umalusi oversees various examining bodies, such as the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the Independent Examinations Board (IEB), and the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI).
Following the release of the 2024 NSC results, some candidates have reported discrepancies in their final matric marks.
Umalusi has directed SACAI matriculants to address their concerns directly with the assessment body. As a private assessment body, SACAI has its own internal procedures for handling inquiries related to re-marks, re-writes, and script viewing.
Umalusi advises learners and parents to direct their queries relating to the costs of and timeliness for viewing, re-marking or re-checking of examination scripts, re-writing of examinations and other NSC exam-related processes to the SACAI.
Umalusi emphasizes that the 2024 SACAI NSC exams underwent rigorous quality assurance measures. These included:
- External moderation: Scrutiny of question papers and school-based assessments by independent evaluators.
- System audits: Checks on the integrity of the examination process.
- Monitoring of exam writing: Ensuring fair and secure conditions during examinations.
- Marking guideline standardization: Ensuring consistent application of marking criteria.
- Verification of marking quality: Checks on the accuracy and fairness of marking.
- Standardization of exam marks: Ensuring fair comparisons of marks across different examination centers.
These processes were consistently applied across all 24 SACAI NSC subjects.
Umalusi affirms that the standardization process for school-based assessments and external exam marks adheres to established principles applied equally to all assessment bodies under its oversight.
It's important to note that SACAI received full accreditation from Umalusi in October 2022 to assess the General Education and Training Certificate (GETC: ABET) and NSC examinations. This accreditation remains valid for the 2024 academic year.
The rationale behind the accreditation of private education and training institutions and private assessment bodies is to ensure that they have the capacity to deliver and assess qualifications registered on the GFETQSF and are doing so to the expected standards and quality.
Umalusi advises learners and parents to carefully consider their choice of assessment body when registering for the NSC exams, taking into account the specific needs and preferences of each student.
