Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education has called on families and communities to help “create the best studying conditions” for matriculants who started writing National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations on Monday.

“We would like to appeal to parents, family, friends, educators, officials and the community at large to help create the best conditions for these learners to study,” said the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, Nomalungelo Gina in a statement.

“Some Grade 12 learners have already started writing the NSC examinations. Foreign languages such Hindi, Gujarati, Arabic, Italian, Spanish and Modern Greek were written today. Those learners taking Computer Applications Technology and Information Technology wrote examinations last week.”

As many as 798 289 candidates have registered for this year’s NSC examination – of these 636 814 are full-time and 161 475 matriculants are part-time candidates. KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have the largest enrollments with 169 023 and 112 164 candidates respectively. 

Referring to candidates whose studies were disrupted by protests, such as in Limpopo province, Gina said: “Candidates need to put in the extra effort to ensure they are successful. Educators have done their utmost to ensure the curriculum was completed and learners had make-up lessons”.

Meanwhile the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union wished teachers well as they invigilate the exams. “Hopefully all the good work they put in throughout the year will bear fruits.”