Durban — With the matric exams less than a hundred days away, the Department of Education has put in place various study programmes for Grade 12 pupils, including roping in higher education institutions.
The department announced on Saturday that the University of KwaZulu-Natal Westville and uMlazi District have collaborated to have extra classes for Grade 12 pupils on Saturdays until August 24.
The department stated that the purpose of this programme was to empower pupils and teachers in key subjects, including maths, physical sciences, accounting, and life sciences.
The department has created a matric helpline timetable informing pupils of dates and times for the classes at the Westville Campus.
uMlazi District director Busi Mahlambi delivered an inspiring welcome address, highlighting the importance of this initiative in shaping future leaders.
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Education Sipho Hlomuka met all 12 districts of the department on Thursday.
The aim was for Hlomuka to get an in-depth understanding of the district’s operations, their challenges, frustrations and aspirations.
Hlomuka heard about issues such as curriculum delivery, academic targets, human resources and other matters that may affect the performance of each district.
“Having met with all the districts, one is very impressed by the spirit of camaraderie that prevails on all our officials. The healthy competition among the districts to ‘dethrone’ one another from the top of the districts ranking when it comes to academic performance, makes for a very competitive but healthy working environment,” said Hlomuka.
Last year, according to an NSC23 technical report released by the department, a total of 715719 full-time and 182056 part-time candidates respectively registered to sit the October/ November 2023 NSC exams.
This translates to a final total of 897 775 candidates writing this exam.
In KwaZulu-Natal, a total of 167 247 enrolled for the exams, 157 911 wrote the exams and 136 366 achieved. The total percentage was 86.36% overall.
Hlomuka’s visits began at Ashley Primary School, where he met representatives from the uMlazi, Pinetown, and uMgungundlovu districts. This was followed by meetings with the iLembe, uMkhanyakude, Zululand, and King Cetshwayo districts.
He then met the Ugu and Harry Gwala districts and concluded with the uThukela, Amajuba, and uMzinyathi districts.
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