As more than 900,000 matriculants sat for their final examinations on Thursday, the spotlight in Gauteng fell on the more than 200 Forte Secondary School learners in Dobsonville, Soweto.

The principal, Mukosi Mudavhi, has set a target of a 90% Bachelor pass for the school this year. This non-fee-paying school, considered one of the best in the province, is once again aiming for a 100% overall pass mark.

A Bachelor pass is the highest achievement a learner can earn in the matric exams, and Forte Secondary School believes this target is achievable to give their learners something to be proud of.

“We have made all the preparations to be able to achieve this target. Firstly, we reopened much earlier than expected. We also did our monthly tasks and targets throughout the year. There is no other plan. We are confident that we will maintain our previous results. We got 100% last year. Even this year, we anticipate that this Class of 2025 will still make us proud; they will make their parents proud, and they will also make the department proud,” Mudavhi said.

While the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams officially started on Tuesday, Thursday marked the biggest day in the country’s examination schedule, with just under one million matriculants taking their English Paper 3 exam.

The Gauteng Department of Education said that since Tuesday, the exams have been progressing smoothly across all its 15 districts, with the province reporting that it has recorded more than 140,000 matriculants. 

“I have made all the preparations I could have made, and English being my favourite subject, I believe I will not achieve anything less than a distinction today. Overall, I am confident that I will do well and will achieve enough to study law or logistics next year,” said Lesedi Mohamme, just minutes before the start of his exam.

Speaking on behalf of the department, Dennis Makwakwa, the chief director for the Johannesburg region, said for the provincial department, this is the biggest day in its academic calendar.

“Today is officially the biggest day as we are writing English Paper 3, our first language. What this means is that every learner is writing today. Tuesday was not as big as today. We want to make sure that all the learners enrolled have the opportunity to sit and write, and get into the mood for the rest of the examination period,” he stated.

Provincial Chief Director of Examination and Assessment, Nadine Pote, revealed that it has taken the department more than two years to prepare for this moment.

“So much preparation has gone into what we see today. It has been a two-year cycle that has gotten us to this point. We are grateful that we can deliver and make sure that there’s a question paper on each candidate’s desk on the day that they are scheduled to write an examination paper.”

This week, Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, stated that the Class of 2025, with 903,561 matriculants, is the largest cohort of high school graduates in the country since public examinations began in 1996. 

The minister confirmed her department’s full readiness to administer the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) Examinations when she announced that this year’s cohort registered for the 2025 NSC exams consists of 766,543 full-time candidates and 137,018 part-time candidates.

siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za

Source link