Question NW89 to the Minister of Basic Education
09 April 2024 - NW89
Graham, Ms SJ to ask the Minister of Basic Education
(1) What total number of (a) pregnant learners and (b) other learners have written their National Senior Certificate Examinations from hospital in the (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2023 examination periods; (2) (a)(i) who determines the capacity of a learner to write an examination from hospital and (ii) on what evidence is such a decision taken, (b) who is responsible for ensuring that a learner who has arranged to write their examinations from hospital, (i) receives the examination paper, (ii) is sufficiently capacitated to write the exam and (iii) have the examination paper submitted for marking and (c) what steps should be taken where an arrangement is made for a learner to write their exam from hospital but her department fails to fulfil its role in the arrangements causing the learner to be disadvantaged?
Reply:
1. Pregnant and Other Learners that have written the examination from Hospital
|
2020 |
85 |
|
2021 |
140 |
|
2022 |
150 |
|
2023 |
209 |
2. The Regulations Pertaining to the Conduct, Administration and Management of the National Senior Certificate Examinations makes provision for learners who are ill or confronted with any other circumstance beyond the candidate’s control, that prevents them from writing the examination, to be allowed to write the next examination.
a) (i) (ii) However, in exceptional cases, provision is also made for the writing of examinations in hospital. This is to accommodate girl learners who are pregnant or learners who are unwell and admitted to hospital, but are capable enough to write the examination. Such a learner and the parent will submit a formal request to the Head of Examinations in the province, to write the examination in hospital. The application must be submitted with a report from the medical practitioner attending to the learner, confirming that the learner is in a state of health to write the examination and that the learner cope with the stress of the examination
b) Once the Head of Examinations has approved the writing of the examination in hospital, guidance and direction is provided by the Provincial Head Office on the protocol to be followed to manage the administration of the examination. An invigilator will be appointed, preferably from the district office to supervise the examination. The first step is for the district office, to liaise with the hospital where the candidate will be writing the examination to ensure that the venue is suitable for the examination, in terms of the criteria relating to an Examination venue. The most important is that the venue must be isolated from the other patients and security must be maintained. The invigilator will collect the question paper from the district office and follow the normal rules relating to the writing of an examination. The script will be collected and returned to the district office and included in the correct batch with the other scripts from the centre where the candidate was registered to sit for the examinations. The subsequent processes follow the normal process flow relating to the management of scripts.
c) Every effort is made to ensure that learners that request to write and examination in hospital are accommodated. No cases have been reported to the DBE relating to a Province neglecting to provide learners with the necessary question papers after the arrangements were finalized, with regard to writing the examination at a hospital. If there was such a case, this should be brought to the attention of the DBE and the matter will be fully investigated and remedial measures will be put in place and consequence management will be implemented if there has been a dereliction of duty.