During a briefing by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, she said that grade 12 pupils will start writing the 2020 national senior certificate (NSC) examinations from the 5th of November until the 15th of December 2020.
“As we had already announced before the June senior certificate (SC) examinations was postponed and will now be written together with the NSC examinations in November,” she said.
Motshekga further mentioned that the examinations timetable for the combined June and November examinations had to be amended so that the examinations commences in November and not October as it was planned.
During the briefing she ferthur explained that the reason for the exams to start late was due to allowing as much time as possible to cover critical curriculum content and to ensure that all examinations processes were appropriately managed.
She also mentioned that the combined examinations is the largest public examinations that has been administered in South Africa. Under the COVID-19 level 1 restrictions, Motshekga said the sector is proceeding well under the difficult conditions and they commend the work done by dedicated teachers and staff to ensure that the system returns to some semblance of normality. However, she noted that there was cause of concern as there are learners who have not returned to school yet. She said in schools they visited the return rate is between 80 to 90%.
She concluded by saying schools will reopen on 25 January 2021 and that the schools calendar will be gazette this Friday.