MATRIC FINAL EXAMS MOVED FORWARD BECAUSE OF ELECTIONS

The Department of Basic Education has announced that this year’s matric final exam will start earlier than scheduled.

Matrics were meant to write English, business studies and non-official languages on 1 November, but now that day has been chosen as the day South Africans will go to the polls for the municipal elections.

On Wednesday morning the Department released a circular following a special meeting between the Council of Education Ministers, announcing that this year’s exam will start on 27 October instead.

“The Council of Education Ministers held a special meeting where the decision was taken earlier this morning. The CEM meeting took place following the series of consultations with the key stakeholders in the basic education sector.”

With 207 question papers already being written over a period of just five weeks, changing one date had a major impact on the entire matric exam timetable.

The Department, however, confirmed that they’ve made their decision based on minimum disruption for the students.

“The best interest of the learner was a key consideration in addition to ensuring that a minimum change to the current timetable was made to avoid confusion.”

Image credit: DFA