Nearly 2 000 markers will complete the exhausting process of marking nearly 1 million Senior Certificate examination scripts at the Peninsula Technikon on Sunday, 9 December, 2001.

Pentech, in Bellville, is hosting the Western Cape Education Department's Marking Centre for the 2001 Senior Certificate examinations.

Since December 1, a total of 1 968 markers have been hard at work marking the examination scripts of 55 162 Western Cape candidates.

The Western Cape Minister of Education, Mr André Gaum, who toured the Marking Centre on Saturday, 8 December, said afterwards that he was impressed by the detailed procedures and high security involved.

"The public can feel confident that our whole examination process has met the highest possible standards and that our successful candidates will have qualifications they can be proud of.

"I would like to thank all those involved in the 2001 Senior Certificate examinations, from teachers to markers, and all our officials and assistants, for an extremely professional operation. We also thank Pentech for hosting our massive marking team.

"We now look forward to the results."

The markers have been working under strict security conditions in various venues making up the Marking Centre.

Security guards have restricted their movements from building to building, while the Marking Centre as a whole has been off-limits to outside visitors who do not have the necessary security clearances.

The high security has been matched by rigorous procedures governing the handling of scripts, the marking process and the calculation of results, to ensure the integrity of the examinations.

Candidates wrote a combined total of 168 examinations from October 15 to November 20 this year.

Security around the printing and distribution of about 20 million copies of the examination papers was also extremely tight. The Western Cape experienced no significant problems involving papers during the examination period.

The Western Cape achieved the highest pass rate in South Africa last year, of 80,6%. It is difficult to predict this year's result, because of new variables, although slight variations around last year's result will be seen to reflect relative stability.

The new variables this year include:

• The introduction of common examinations for all provinces in five subjects: English Second Language, Mathematics, Physical Science, Accounting and Biology;
• The inclusion of year marks in end-of-year results; and
• Special measures to support teaching and learning in Western Cape schools that achieved pass rates of less than 60% in 2000.

The WCED will be studying the results of schools that received special support carefully to see whether these interventions have worked. These measures are not expected to have a significant influence on the overall provincial pass rate, because of the relatively few schools involved.

A significant development this year has been the introduction of a new system of classifying passes. For the first time, a candidates can be awarded a:

• Pass (for aggregates between 750 and 1259);
• Pass with Merit (for aggregates between 1260 and 1679); and a
• Pass with Distinction (for aggregates above 1680).

By Sunday, 9 December, markers and mark checkers will finalise totals on about 45 000 mark sheets which will then be taken to the WCED's head office in Cape Town where the marks will be captured twice by a team of 13 specialist data capturers. The computer system will reject marks that do not match.

The marks will be checked again before they are submitted to the South African Certification Council for approval. Once certified, the WCED will process them again for distribution.

The Senior Certificate results for 2001 are scheduled for release at 09h30 on 27 December. They will be available in the media and on the WCED's web site at http://wced.wcape.gov.za.