The education quality assurance council said on Friday it had completed its role of monitoring and verifying the readiness of the public and private assessment bodies to manage and conduct the 2022 exams.

The assessment bodies are the department of basic education (DBE), the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) and the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI).

Umalusi said as part of its quality assurance mandate, it was required to assess the levels of readiness of the bodies to conduct, administer and manage the exams before they start. The council uses a framework that focuses on a number of areas, including:

• management of exams;
• registration of candidates;
• registration of exam centres; and
• printing, packaging and distribution of question papers.

The council said all assessment bodies have successfully completed registration of candidates. It said the DBE has 923,460 candidates registered (up from 897,786 in 2021), the IEB has 13,567 and SACAI 4,951.

IEB candidates will write the exams at 232 centres for full-time candidates and at six for part-time candidates. These numbers include 15 new IEB schools.

SACAI will for the first time be managing and conducting the exams as a fully accredited assessment body after Umalusi granted it accreditation to assess the NSC and the General Education and Training Certificate: Adult Basic Education and Training (GETC: ABET) with effect from October 1.

SACAI candidates will write the exams at 85 centres.

Umalusi CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi issued a stern warning to pupils and teachers to refrain from cheating, including group copying, where teachers were sometimes implicated.

“We condemn this criminal practice. Cheating compromises the integrity of our national examination system, which we are mandated to jealously protect as a quality council,” he said.

Umalusi discouraged communities from using national exams as leverage for their protest actions, he added. “This is unacceptable as it jeopardises the future of our children.”

Source: TimesLIVE