Statement by André Gaum, Western Cape Education Minister

More than 42 000 full-time candidates completed the 2002 Senior Certificate examinations on Friday, 22 November, with papers in Computer Studies and Maritime Studies.

The Western Cape Education Department is now preparing to enter the next stage of the examination process, as it collects together more than one million scripts for marking between Saturday, 30 November, and Sunday, 8 December, 2002.

The WCED is completing the process of gathering the scripts from about 590 examination centres across the province. Every script features a barcode to facilitate its progress through the marking process.

The WCED has also included barcodes on mark sheets, so that the final results can be tallied and verified as quickly as possible.

A total of 42 268 full-time learners in the Western Cape started writing the 2002 Senior Certificate examinations in earnest on Monday, 14 October.

A total of 13 684 part-time and private candidates also registered for the examinations, bringing the total number of candidates writing the 2002 Senior Certificate examinations to 56 152.

Meanwhile, examiners and moderators for every paper have finalised the memoranda to be used by markers for assessing the examinations.

The examiners and moderators have also marked a number the scripts for every paper, in preparation for marking period. They will refer to these scripts and the memoranda when they brief markers before the start of the marking process.

Data capturers at the WCED are in the process of the capturing continuous assessment (CASS) marks for every candidate.

CASS marks, for work completed during the course of the year, account for 25% of the total mark for most subjects, and 50% for tasks that involve practical work, for example, musical performance, technical drawing and computer programming.

All marks will undergo a rigorous moderating process before being certified by Umalusi, previously known as the South African Certification Council (Safcert).

The WCED will look closely at a number of variables when evaluating the results. The key variables are the pass rates per school, and the numbers of candidates passing with merit, distinction and with exemption.

It is not enough to look only at the overall pass rate. We have to look at the quality of the pass rate, which we will measure using these key criteria.

The target date for the release of the results is Friday, 27 December.

For further details on examinations, contact:

Brian Schreuder
Deputy Director-General: Education Planning and Development, WCED
082-373-5989