Premier Helen Zille and Minister Debbie Schafer will on Monday announce the Western Cape’s targets for the upcoming National Senior Certificate examinations.

The Premier and the Minister will be highlighting how the Western Cape will interpret the results, when they are released in January next year, touching on key indicators such as retention and the quality of passes.

In a statement, the office of the Premier said while many continue to obsess about the pass rate, the Premier and the Minister will discuss how it is not an accurate measure of the education system’s performance.

The WCED will also so be raising the issue of competency testing markers. Much has been said regarding the importance of competency testing for markers over the last two years, yet the Western Cape remains the only province to conduct testing of this nature.

“The Western Cape government will argue that it remains a priority for the province to ensure that there is the highest possible standard of marking in these examinations and that all their markers are both competent and experienced in their subject fields, despite the ‘disadvantage’ it may bring to the overall result,” Zille said.

In ensuring quality marking in the run-up to the 2014 exams, they added that there is no doubt that the quality of marking will again be a factor when analysing the 2014 results. VOC