Close to 200 000 pupils will write the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations in KwaZulu-Natal starting on October 21.
The Department of Education in the province revealed this during a media briefing on Wednesday.
About 172 433 are full-time pupils and about 18 019 are part-time candidates.
The department detailed the scale of its operations which are the largest in the country, with 6 343 invigilators managing examination sessions across 6 710 examination rooms.
There are 32 marking centres with 7 614 markers, 1 517 senior markers, 300 deputy chief markers, 67 chief markers, 87 internal moderators, 32 centre managers, 64 deputy centre managers, and 2 100 examination assistants.
Marking will commence on December 1 and conclude on December 10.
Marking centres will close on December 18 after the collection of answer scripts, which will be sent back to the storage facilities in districts.
The distribution of examination materials will be done through 13 nodal points and 103 distribution and collection centres.
KwaZulu-Natal will print 120 question papers, totalling 30 million prints.
National Minister of Education Siviwe Gwarube stated that the provincial department will release NSC results on January 15, 2025.
Districts will collect their statements of results from the Provincial Head Office on January 15 and release them to schools on the morning of January 16, 2025.
Detailing their state of readiness, the department said, “As a department, we hosted the winter classes programme, which was aimed at preparing learners and ensuring that they are ready for the end-of-year examinations.
“We also had a hybrid model organisation that included learner camps where learners were provided with overnight accommodation and cluster walk-in centres with learners from different schools attending in one centre. We also had individual schools organising their winter holiday classes.
“Our winter camps accommodated 98 975 learners in 1 001 winter school centres.
“It is because of all these intervention programmes that the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal is confident that the Class of 2024 is ready for the National Senior Certificate examinations,” it said.
“We want to thank our educators for their sterling work and for the dedication that they always display, sometimes under very difficult conditions.
“This is a crucial time where we ask members of the public, especially parents, to support the Class of 2024.
“We want to run an irregularity-free examination system to ensure no one is left behind during the release of results,” said the department.
The Mercury