| 1.1 |
The National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations for the subjects registered in the National Curriculum Statement of 2003 will be written for the first time in 2008. To assist schools to prepare for this historic external examination, the national Department of Education (DoE) has indicated that it plans to support Grades 10 and 11 in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
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| 1.2 |
The DoE has appointed and trained examining panels in preparation for the NSC examinations in 2008. These examining panels will be setting exemplars for Grades 10 in 2006 and grade 11 in 2007.
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| 2.1 |
In Grade 10, the marks allocated to assessment tasks completed during the school year will be 25% and the end of the year examination will count 75% of the total marks. All reports sent to parents must include all the assessment tasks from the formal programme of assessment for that term i.e. practical marks, oral marks, marks from other formal tasks, and examinations.
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| 2.2 |
Exemplar question papers for Grade 10 will be sent to all schools in the country at the end of August 2006.
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| 2.3 |
Schools must use these exemplars in order to guide their own examination setting process for the final assessment in terms of the type and level of questions. Schools may not use the exemplars as the final examination. EMDCs will monitor schools to ensure that end of year examinations for Grade 10 comply with the standard and format of the exemplar question papers.
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| 2.4 |
Schools are invited to send comments on the national question papers by fax to the Director: Curriculum Development at 021 467 2620. The comments must be submitted on a school letterhead with the heading: Grade 10 national exemplar question papers.
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| 2.5 |
All schools must submit a copy of their Grade 10 final results to their relevant EMDC by 2 December 2006 for submission to Mr J Parbhoo at Head Office by no later than 6 December 2006. The required format will be supplied to the EMDCs.
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| 3. |
Grade 10 Pilot Project
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| 3.1 |
The DoE will also be conducting a Grade 10 pilot in selected schools in the province in 2006.
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| 3.2 |
Special question papers will be set by the DoE for these pilot schools and the schools will be responsible for the printing of the question papers for the learners.
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| 3.3 |
The pilot examination will be written in November 2006 according to a timetable supplied by the DOE.
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| 3.4 |
Only selected schools will be allowed to write the pilot examination and requests by non-pilot schools to write this examination will not be entertained.
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| 3.5 |
The question papers used in the pilot examination will be supplied to all schools in early 2007.
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| 4.1 |
In 2007, the DoE will conduct a full-scale examination for Grade 11 according to a national timetable as a precursor to the final examination in Grade 12 in 2008.
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| 4.2 |
Further details for Grade 11 will be supplied to schools at the end of 2006 so that schools can plan accordingly for 2007. All schools will be expected to utilise most of the fourth quarter for writing the national examination. It is therefore strongly recommended that schools do not write examinations in the third term, but use the time effectively for teaching and learning.
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| 4.3 |
All schools will be supplied with the question papers prior to the commencement of the examination. All the security arrangements that are normally in place for the writing of the Senior Certificate examinations will be applicable for this examination.
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| 4.4 |
Memoranda will be sent to schools after each paper has been written.
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| 4.5 |
Teachers will mark the scripts from the national papers and submit their marks on a provincial mark sheet.
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| 4.6 |
In addition to the national examination papers, the examining panels from the DoE will produce exemplar question papers for Grade 11 for distribution by March 2007.
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| 5. |
The setting of Grade 10 exemplars and the Grade 11 national examination for 2006 and 2007 respectively will be an interim arrangement.
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| 6. |
Kindly inform all teachers, parents and learners of these measures to ensure that learners are adequately prepared to meet the demands of the National Senior Certificate process.
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SIGNED: J.P. RAULT-SMITH
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2006:08:23
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