Opening of Marking Centres
The Northern Cape Department of Education has reached the final hurdle of the 2018 National Senior Certificate examination. A total of 982 Markers coverged in Kimberley from 1-12 December, where the standard of marking will once again be raised to a higher level.
During this period, the Northern Cape will host 43 subjects, 73 question papers and 173 873 scripts to be marked. Right from the start of the year, various Matric intervention programmes were embarked on to support the Class of 2018. Educators have worked hard and have applied all possible efforts to raise the bar and to improve the results and the quality of pasess in our Province.
The Marking of candidates scripts in public examinations is one of the most challenging, but rewarding exercises. The National Senior Certificate marking needs intense and prolonged concentration, coupled with validity, reliability, consistency and accuracy. Besides producing a mark, the outcome of the Marking of each candidate must be a reflection of the extent to which the knowledge, skills and other competencies have been demonstrated. It is critical to the integrity and credibility of the NSC Examination that the Marking is conducted with the necessary professionalism, care and dedication. The most important aspect of good and accurate marking is the markers familiarization with the marking guidelines. In the National Senior Certificate examination familiarization includes the ability to apply the marking guidelines in order to make judgements on how well the candidate has responded to questions.
Marking officials as well as administrators are expected to maintain a high level of efficiency and accuracy, as the outcome of this examination are used by candidates to obtain entry to tertiary education institutions or to access other training or employment opportunities. The outcomes of the NSC Examinations also serves as a barometer and used as indicators of the educators and schools performance at Provincial and National levels.
The MEC for Education, Ms Martha Bartlett accompanied by the Head of Department and Senior Manager, officially opened the 3 Marking Centres yesterday. In her address she said, "Marking is considered as one stage in an integrated, collaborative process of teaching and learning, requiring awareness of the teacher’s dual role as a coach and assessor are now calibrated. It also requires the marker to understand fully the context of the learners. It is in this context that we all upon you, as an intellectual, to maintain the moral and ethics of the teaching profession with this big task at hand".
For this mammoth task, we have appointed:
-724 Markers
-146 Senior Markers
-46 Chief Markers
-20 Deputy Chief Markers
-46 Internal Moderators
-3 Centre Managers
-6 Deputy Centre Managers
-120 Examination Assistants
It is their responsibility to ensure that the marking process in credible and reflect the candidates achievement. We wish the Markers all of the best with the important responsibility bestowed upon each and every one of them.
The Northern Cape will release our provincial results on 4 January 2019, which will be followed by the Provincial Matric Awards, to acknowledge our top learners in the Province.
End.