Cape Town – Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has decided to administer the May/June 2020 examination concurrently with the October/November 2020 examination for grade 12 pupils, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) announced on Wednesday.
Departmental spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the combined June and November examination will commence officially on Thursday, November 5 and terminate on Tuesday, December 15.
Mhlanga said the late commencement of the final Grade 12 examinations will allow schools and pupils adequate time to cover the curriculum and also to ensure that ample time was allocated for revision of the syllabus.
"Candidates are once again reminded that this is a combined examination which implies that all candidates who were scheduled to write the Senior Certificate examination in May/June 2020 and have already registered, will be allowed to write this examination," Mhlanga said.
He said candidates who had also registered for the October/November 2020 National Senior Certificate examination would be allowed to write the examination.
"More than 1.1 million candidates are expected to sit for the 2020 combined matric exam and every registered candidate will receive an admission letter, by end September, listing the subjects for which they have registered and the examination centre at which they are writing," he said.
Mhlanga said registration for the examination has closed "and unfortunately, no late registrations can be entertained".
He said candidates who were originally scheduled to write the 2020 October/November examination would write two papers each in Business Studies and Accounting, whereas those who would have written the 2020 May/June examination will write one paper each in Business Studies and Accounting.
As denoted on the timetable, the Life Orientation (LO) Common Assessment Task will be written on Monday, October 19.
The practical examinations in Computer Applications Technology (CAT) and Information Technology (IT), will be written before the official commencement of the examination, on Wednesday, 21 and Thursday, 22 October 2020, respectively.
Mhlanga said the results of the 2020 Grade 12 examination will be released to candidates on February 23, 2021.
He said candidates needed to be assured that the late release of the results would not jeopardise their admission to Higher Education Institutions.
Cape Argus