PRETORIA - The basic education department has postponed the May/June amended senior certificate (old matric) and national senior certificate examinations.
This is the matric examination which was to be written by more than 350,000 part-time candidates and includes those who did not meet the pass requirements in the 2019 final exams, as well as those who sought to rewrite to improve their marks, the department said in a statement.
Basic education department director general Mathanzima Mweli had written a letter to the heads of provincial educations departments confirming the changes in the plan for the examinations.
“The advent of the Covid-19 virus has led to the early closure of schools during the first term and the declaration of a 21-day lockdown by the President of the Republic of South Africa, commencing from 26 March and concluding on 16 April 2020. The lockdown has since been extended until Thursday, 30 April 2020. This has resulted in a disruption to schooling and hence the writing of May/June 2020 examinations has to be re-scheduled,” said Mweli.
The May/June 2020 examination was scheduled to start on Monday, May 4 and conclude on Friday, June 26.
“At the Hedcom [heads of education departments council] meeting of 10 April 2020, it was agreed that the May/June examination should be merged with the November 2020 examination.”
"The details regarding the merged June and November examination will be communicated to you in due course. Candidates will be informed regarding registration, examination centers and time-tables," he said.
The department urged all candidates to continue their preparations. Learning and revision material had been made available on the department's website.
The second chance matric support programme link on the website was still available to assist especially those who had been studying independently as part-time candidates, the statement said.