1. The Regulations Pertaining to the Conduct, Administration and Management of the National Senior Certificate examination, published in Government Gazette No. 37651 of 16 May 2014, makes provision for a final promotion mark for Life Orientation (LO) based on internal assessment, which must be externally moderated, as well as a Common Assessment Task (CAT) that is externally set and moderated.

2. The aim of this minute is to inform schools of the procedure to be followed in the administration of the CAT for LO in 2017.

3. Writing of the CAT for LO
3.1 The CAT for LO forms part of the final promotion mark in Grade 12 and therefore all Grade 12 learners must write it.
3.2 The date for the writing of the CAT for LO is 08 September 2017, from 09:00 to 11:00. Any deviation from this date and time will be regarded as a serious irregularity.
3.3 The CAT for LO will consist of a two-hour paper totalling 80 marks. It will replace Task 4 in Term 3 and will constitute 20% of the final mark for LO.
3.4 The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will print question papers and answer books for the CAT for LO for all Grade 12 learners in the province according to the final registration data as indicated on the Central Education Management Information System (CEMIS) and distribute them to all schools that offer the National Senior Certificate (NSC).
3.5 Upon receipt of the question papers, principals must take full responsibility as chief invigilators to ensure that all conditions and rules relating to the NSC examinations are followed.
3.6 Principals must open the envelope on the day of the examination in the presence of the learners and oversee the distribution of the question papers.
3.7 Principals must ensure that invigilators are vigilant while the CAT for LO is written.
3.8 After the writing of the CAT for LO, the scripts must be sealed in the bag provided and stored in the strongroom of the school until the commencement of marking.

4. Marking guideline discussions
4.1 National and provincial marking guideline discussion meetings will take place from 13 to 20 September 2017.
4.2 The final marking guideline will be provided to schools by 21 September 2017 but scripts may only be removed from the strongroom on the day marking commences.

5. Marking of the CAT for LO
5.1 The marking of the CAT for LO should be conducted at the school under the supervision of the principal, with a senior teacher or Head of Department (HoD) acting as the internal moderator.
5.2 The marking process should commence on 22 September 2017 and must be concluded by 29 September 2017.
5.3 Where there is more than one teacher teaching LO at the school, principals should ensure that teachers do not mark the scripts of their own learners.

6. Moderation of learner evidence
6.1 At least 10% of the marked scripts should be moderated by a senior teacher or HoD.
6.2 The subject adviser for LO must moderate a sample of scripts from selected schools.
6.3 Provincial and national moderation of the CAT for LO will take place from 02 to 04 October 2017.

7. Capturing of marks for the CAT for LO
7.1 A special mark sheet will be issued to schools for the recording of CAT for LO marks. This mark sheet will be additional to the normal mark sheet provided for LO.
7.2 The CAT for LO mark sheet must be sent to the WCED together with the rest of the school-based assessment mark sheets.

8. Principals are kindly requested to make the necessary arrangements for the conduct of this assessment.

9. Kindly bring this information to the attention of all Grade 12 Life Orientation teachers and learners.


SIGNED: PAD BEETS
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT MANAGEMENT
DATE: 2017:07:25