Statement by André Gaum, Western Cape Education Minister

About 2 000 markers gathered at the Peninsula Technikon on Saturday, 30 November 2002, to start marking about one million scripts submitted by candidates for the 2002 Senior Certificate examinations.

A total of 42 468 full-time learners in the Western Cape started writing the examinations in earnest on Monday, 14 October, and completed the final papers on Friday, 22 November.

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

The marking process is scheduled to be completed by Sunday, 8 December.

The examination process is a massive undertaking. I would like to thank all those involved in the 2002 Senior Certificate examinations, from teachers to markers, for their professional approach to this whole exercise.

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has completed the task of collecting the examination scripts from across the province, and bringing them first to the WCED’s head office in Cape Town, and then to the Marking Centre at Pentech.

The markers are working under stringent security conditions in various venues making up the centre.

Security guards are restricting their movements from building to building, while the centre as a whole is 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

Every script features a barcode to facilitate processing the results. The WCED has also included barcodes on mark sheets, so that the final results can be tallied and verified as quickly as possible.

Data capturers at the WCED are completing the process of 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.

By Sunday, 8 December, markers and mark checkers will have finalised 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 Umalusi, formerly the South African Certification Council, for moderation. Once certified, the WCED will process them again for distribution.

Successful candidates will pass in three categories - a pass, a pass with merit, and a pass with distinction. 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