North West Education MEC Mmaphefo Matsemela. File photo: ANA

RUSTENBURG - The class of 2019 is the "best matric team ever" from the North West, education MEC Mmaphefo Matsemela said on Friday.

"You are the best group ever. I compared you with the class of 2015 and you are the strongest group. It is possible to make it,"  she said at a special event at Tshukudu Secondary School in Thekwane, outside Rustenburg.

"We can say to Gauteng and the Western Cape, and also the Free State, that we are around the corner," she said.

At least 39,954 Grade 12 candidates would write their final examinations in the North West this year. The province has registered 33,014 full time candidates and 6940 part-time candidates. There would be 16 marking venues across the province.

At the beginning of the month, Matsemela said security measures had been intensified for the final examinations.

"As a province, we continue to pull all strings to ensure that we intensify security measures in collaboration with the provincial joint operations committee. We want our examination materials to be delivered safely to various storages, examination centres, and to our marking centres.

"We have also trained our invigilators who will be monitoring. We have already appointed a panel to manage and deal with all examination irregularities experienced during the writing of exams."

The Grade 12 national senior certificate examinations would be written from October 23 until November 28, with the practical components of computer application technology and information technology carried out on the October 16 and 17 respectively. 

The North West obtained an 81.1 percent pass rate in the 2018 matric results and had finished in the fourth position for two consecutive years.

Matsemela appealed to communities to allow school pupils to write their examination in a peaceful and conducive environment without any disturbance.

African News Agency