Appendix A

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON THE SENIOR CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: THE MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON THE SENIOR CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS

In terms of section 8 of the National Education Policy Act, 1996 (Act No. 27 of 1996), the Minister of Education has a monitoring and evaluation function with regard to the implementation of national policy on education. If the outcome of the monitoring and evaluation necessitates further investigation, the Minister may, in terms of section 3(4) (d) and 3 (4) (1) of the said Act, mandate research with a view to developing new policy or amending current policy.

Now, therefore, I, Sibusiso Mandlenkosi Emmanuel Bengu, Minister of Education, hereby request any person, society or organisation to submit to me before 25 March 1998, the names of persons who, by virtue of their knowledge and experience, may be considered for appointment as members of the aforesaid Committee.

Nominations, accompanied by the curriculum vitae of the nominee and a letter of consent to serve on the Committee, if selected, should be forwarded to:

The Director-General: Education
(For Attention: Dr I. L. Rensburg)
Private Bag X895
PRETORIA
0001.

S. M. E BENGU
Minister of Education

2.1. The Standardisation of Senior Certificate Results.

1. An analysis of the South African Certification Council Act, 1986 (no. 85 of 1986) with a view to establishing whether the act adequately provides for the maintaining of Standards across the various examining bodies, given the diversity of the South African learner population.
2. An investigation into the role of the SAFCERT council and its executive arm, in relation to the Act.
3. An investigation into the mechanism of standardisation used by SAFCERT with a view to ascertaining whether the current mechanism is the most suitable and appropriate given the historical background of South Africa.
4. Outline the relationship between SAFCERT, the Examining Bodies and the National Department of Education, as described in the Act and to recommend a possible change in that relationship, if considered necessary.
5. To investigate the level of understanding of the standardisation process by the Provincial Education Departments and the capacity of these Departments to accurately implement the standardisation process as required by SAFCERT.

2.2. The Capacity of the Provincial Education Departments to Analyse the Senior Certificate Results.

To investigate the capacity of the Provincial Education Departments to analyse the senior certificate results, using appropriate methodologies with a view to:

• arriving at appropriate conclusions about the state of teaching ant learning in the province;
• reporting effectively on the problems responsible for poor performance in the senior certificate examination; and
• putting in place appropriate measures to improve learner and learning site performance.

2.3. The Examination Computer System.

1. To analyse the examination system currently by the Provincial Examining Bodies so as to determine the suitability, efficiency and effectiveness of the system.
2. To investigate whether all programme changes to the system i.e. pass and endorsement requirements as stipulated in Reports 550, are accurately and timeously effected.
3. To determine the level of understanding of the computer system by personnel currently working with the system.
4. To review the technical capacity of the provinces to accurately and timeously capture, process and report on examination data.
5. To evaluate the nature, quality and financial implications of the sentence offered by Q Data Consulting Services, to eight of the nine provinces in terms of maintaining the computer system.
6. To evaluate the nature, quality and financial implications of the system and its maintenance, as utilised by the Western Cape Education Department.
7. To investigate the current and future role of the Help Desk services currently offered by the Q Data Help Desk.
8. To establish the progress made by the Provincial Departments in securing a new contract on either the development of a new computer system or the maintenance of the existing system.
9. To investigate, in the case of provinces that have decided to develop a new system, the feasibility of maintaining a parallel run so as to ensure a successful implementation of a new system.
10. To investigate in conjunction with the Gauteng Department of Education the future location of the Historical Data and the Help Desk Services.

3. COMPOSITION OF THE COMMITTEE AND TERM OF OFFICE

3.1. The Committee will comprise of eight persons. The Committee will be headed by a chairperson, appointed by the Minister, who will take full responsibility for the Committee.

3.2. The nature of the terms of reference of the committee is such that, it is necessary to divide the Committee into two Working Groups. Each of the Working Groups will be managed by a Group Co-ordinator. The Committee as a unit will be collectively responsible for the entire brief but for the purpose of specialisation, the Working Groups will function as follows:

3.3. The members of Working Group 1, must have a knowledge of the following:

• educational statistics with particular reference to examinations and standardisation;
• school examination systems and processes.
• the current school policy as contained in report 550 and reports 190 and 191.
• the latest developments relating to SAQA policy on standards seeing and quality assurance; and
• the future role of examinations.

3.4. The members of Working Group 2 must have a knowledge of the following:

• quantitative and qualitative analysis and interpretation of results;
• information technology as it relates to examination systems.;
• the current examination system used by the various examining bodies;
• minimum specifications for an effective computer system used in the examination process; and
• procedures and strategies used in the audit of a computer system.

3.5. The term of office for the Committee members shall be 30 working days elective from the date of appointment which period may be extended or shortened at the discretion of the Minister seer consultation with the Director General and the Chairperson of the Committee. Members of the committee will be based at the Department of Education in Pretoria and the remuneration will be R586,00 (five hundred and eighty six rands) per day. The chairperson will receive R761,00 (seven hundred and sixty one rands) per day.

Appendix C

VISITS TO PROVINCIAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS

Agreed on question areas

Subcommittee 2's brief includes recommending ways for Provinces to maximise the use of information derived from the senior certificate examination, with the aim of improving education in the province.

Examiners and examiners' reports

One very rich source of information should come from the examiners' reports. The subcommittee will examine these reports, with the following specific questions possibly serving as starting points:

• how detailed were the reports? Was a common format followed (e.g. specific points of this year's paper, discussion of this year's paper compared to 1996, specific sections - e.g. Calculus, vectors, expository writing, comments on unevennesses in preparation ....). Was an attempt made in the reports to guide the reader?
• · how useful were the reports in terms of what they revealed about syllabus coverage? Did they yield information that could guide corrective action or point to where assistance was needed? Were they detailed enough to allow weak areas to be pinpointed or were they couched in fiery general terms?
• how useful were the reports in terms of future examination paper design? Do they indicate where certain areas or item types are found problematic by groups of candidates?
• for which audience were the reports aimed? Teachers? Educ Dept officials?
• Were the reports circulated to the markers before being submitted (even if only sections of it). Was marker input sought and gained?
• Was feedback (from schools, teachers etc.) from the previous year sought in order to improve the latest and future reports?

Further questions will probe:

• what happened to the reports after they were submitted to the department?
• how was feedback on the reports solicited by the department? What check was made on how schools used the reports? How did the department facilitate this?

Related to this, questions need to be asked about training of markers, contracts, accountability, participation in examination process etc.

Subject advisers/development officers

In connection with subject advisers, the aim is to ascertain how in touch they are with the school-leaving examination information contained in the examiners' reports, as well as with the exam statistics for their subject. In addition, the subcommittee will probe the use that is made of this information - how proactive are they in reading the reports, speaking to the examiners on the basis of the reports, and planning in the light of that? Have they spoken to the examiners yet (not about the paper, of course, but about how feedback will be arranged and delivered) - do they know who they are?

Relations with the press

Do the departments have properly briefed media officers who in turn brief the press about important features of the exams? Do they ensure that their communities are informed about general developments via community newspapers etc.? For example, are the numbers of Maths HG candidates growing or shrinking in a particular area? Why? Is a particular subject suddenly taking off e.g. enrolment in tourism?

The public is surprise interested in "the matric exam", and if skilfully handled, this could be a great asset in raising public awareness on important issues.

Appendix D

FUNCTIONAL DOCUMENT ON EXAMINATIONS COMPUTER SYSTEMS

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

1.1 Infrastructure
1.2 Schools examination system
1.3 Technical Colleges system
1.4 Colleges of Education system
1.5 National History system

2. Overview of functions available

2.1 The examination systems

3. Technical Information

3.1 Infrastructure
3.2 Examination system
3.3 Platforms supporting these technologies
3.4 Networking
3.5 Existing Bureau facilities
3.6 Mainframe Technology
3.7 Database Information
3.8 Printer Technology

4. Responsibilities
5. Statistical Information
6. Summary

1. INTRODUCTION

There are five systems supporting examinations administration presently in production and they are as follow:

1.1 Infrastructure

1.1.1 Purpose:
Exercise security and control of individual users, linking of systems and their function codes to programs, generation and controlling of batch processes, updating of system codes and offering program/system utilities for both end users and programmers.

1.2 Schools examination system

1.2.1 Purpose:
Process all examination entries for schools (presently Senior Certificate in all provinces and Grades 9 and 7 in some provinces), from the setting up of question papers, candidate entires to final examination results as well as communicating with:

This system currently carries all the available electronic history of Technical colleges Nation wide (includes ex DET, DEC, HOR).
This system also carries the active History for the ex DET's Colleges of Education Country wide excluding Northern Province, Free State and Mpumalanga who continue to run examinations in their production environment. The Colleges of Education history data is still very active in KwaZulu-Natal and North West provinces.

1.3.2 This system provides a service to the following:
ENGINEERING STUDIES (3 examinations per year)
BUSINESS STUDIES (2 examinations per year)
NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE (2 examination per year PLUS 1 supplementary)
HISTORICAL ENQUIRIES FOR TECHNICAL COLLEGES (on-going)
HISTORICAL ENQUIRIES FOR COLLEGES OF EDUCATION (on-going)

1.4 Colleges of Education examination system

1.4.1 Purpose:
Process all examination entries for Colleges of Education (Presently used by Mpumalanga, Free State and Northern Province), from the setting up of. question papers, candidate entires to final examination results as well as communicating with:

1.4.2 This system provides a service to the following:
All Junior and Senior Teaching diplomas and certificates for full-time and supplementing students (1 examination per year plus 1 supplementary)

1.5 National History examination system

1.5.1 Purpose:
Process and combining of all multiple candidate entries for schools (presently Senior Certificates written in all provinces as well as Grades 9 and 7 in some provinces). Handeling of replacement certificates, re-issues duplicates etc. as well as enquiries and validations of issued certificates The History system communicates with

1.5.2 This system provides a service to all the provinces as well as the National Department involving all the electronic history available Nation wide.

2. OVERVIEW OF FUNCTIONS AVAILABLE

2.1 The examination systems

All the following functions are available on all systems ie. Senior Certificate, Technical Colleges, Colleges of Education and History systems although usage and functionality will vary between systems.

2.1.1 Browse Information on Files:enables the user to browse through information available on all data files. e.g. look through candidates registered at a specific centre to find a candidates IDno.

2.1.2 Entries:
Candidate entries are registered per examination by mean of electronic/magnetic media or directly within the on-line environment. Full candidate validation takes place according to the rules and regulations set out by National Education.

Note: Both PC Based and Mainframe technology exists for this subsystem.

2.1.3 Mark Sheets:
Generation of mark sheets, capturing and controlling of mark sheets. The mark sheets are also printed with bar codes for controlling the flow of mark sheets at strategic points.
Note: Both, PC Based and Mainframe technology exists for capturing and scanning of mark sheets form remote sites.

2.1.4 Examination Result:
All results are processed programmatically and in accordance to the rules and regulations set out by National Education and SAFCERT.

2.1.5 Mark Adjustment:
Also known as ogiving, compares the subject written marks to a five or six year norm and recommends adjustments to give candidates a fair pass rate. Numerous processe are in place, all processes used are as specified through the IPEC, SAFCERT and the National Department.

2.1.6 Subject information:
All subject and paper information is carried forward from the previous examination and where required, changes are made to meet new requirements. Subject information has a direct influence on validation of candidate entries, candidate promotion and conversions, examination packing procedures, time table, admission letters, personal time tables etc.

2.1.7 Irregularities:
Irregular candidates are suspended individually or per examination centre. This subsystem controls the correspondence and investigations into these irregularities.

2.1.8 Region, Districts, Area, Circuit or Exam. Centres:
All examination centres are registered and allocated to a regions and districts as well as their respective province.

2.1.9 Candidate and Document History:
Candidates who enter on an ongoing basis and apply for certification, are processed along with their history information for possible certification (this function is part of the National History Data Base and at present is used for all data prior to 199711).

2.1.10 Document issuing and issues:
Controlling and enquiring of all documents issued by the department via the computer system since 1907 (this function is part of the National History data base and at present is used for all data prior to 199711).

2.1.1 1 Preliminary number of candidate entries:
Is an optional system that can be used by management to gauge the number of candidate entries per school so that up front planning, budgeting and stationary requirements can be made.

2.1.12 Recovery of Funds:
Controlling of funds received from examination centres for examination fees paid. This subsystem is has been dormant since to examination fees were abolished but can be revived if the fees are reintroduced.

2.1.13 Re-mark and Checking:
When a candidate has applied for remark or recheck his certificate is suspended and re-mark or re-checking takes place.

2.1.14 Supplementary Examinations:
Automatic registration of candidates/students that qualify for supplementary examinations. The systems can produce entry forms for those who qualify which are entered on-line.

2.1.15 Stationery and Examination Aids:
Controlling of codes and descriptions used by candidates during examinations. This information is printed on candidates personal time tables.

2.1.16 Question Paper Stock Maintenance:
Optional sub-system used to monitor the reproduction of exam papers and to highlight shortages.

2.1.17 Packing of stationary/question papers:
Reports are generated to assist with the packing and distribution of question papers and examination stationary supplied by the department.

2.1.18 Statistics:
All statistics pertaining to pass and fail rates, entries, irregularities etc. can be extracted per province, region or on a national level, are available for press releases, subject advisers planners and management. Electronic Media is also available.

2.1.19 Time Table:
Dates, times and duration of each question paper is maintained for candidate admission letters, payment of examiners etc.

2.1.20 System Parameter and System Index Maintenance:
Indexes, standard names used etc. are maintained by the systems administrators on each database.

2.1.21 Word Processor:
Editing of letters used for irregularities, examination results candidate entries etc.

2.1.22 Examination Marking Claims:
Controlling and payment of markers for the marking sessions by means of cheque or direct payment through PERSAL. Note: Both PC Based and Mainframe technology exists for this subsystem.

2.1.23 Hand Claims:
Indirect payment of examiners claims and expenses occurred by means of cheque or direct payment. (This sub-system is dormant at present).

2.1.24 SANED Functions:
Updating of sectors and magisterial codes per examination centre for statistical purposes for National Education. (This sub-system is dormant at present).

2.1.25 Invigilators' Claims:
Payment of invigilators' claims and expenses occurred by means of cheque or direct payment. (This sub-system is dormant at present)

2.1.26 Question Papers (setting up of papers)
Controlling of the setting up of examination papers and correspondence between the department, examiners and moderators. (This subsystem is dormant at present)

2.1.27 Examination Officials':
Evaluation and appointment and control of all examination officials' personal information (Markers, moderators etc.). Note: Both PC Based and Mainframe technology exists for this subsystem.

2.1.28 Request System and General Functions:
Control and administer changes, enhancements and maintenance to the system software.

2.1.29 Job Control and General Functions:
Controlling of batch processes, bulk printing, task scheduling etc.

3. TECHNICAL INFORMATION

3.2 Examination systems

3.3 Platforms supporting these technologies.

3.4 Networking

'OPENET' is the common technology used by most provinces. OPENET is already in place country wide and has access through all existing government bureaus. Other network supporting these technologies are available and are in use. The responsibility of Networking has been placed within each Provincial IT Department and not with the examinations division.

3.5 Existing Bureau facilities are already in place in most major centres. i.e.

Cape Town
Port Elizabeth
Centurion
Pretoria
Pieter Maritzburg
Bloemfontein

All processing, Nation wide for all examination systems (SAFCERT, Persal etc. included), is done centrally from Centurion's CCS Bureau Nucleus. Other bureaus such as Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Pieter Maritzburg and Bloemfontein are used for bulk laser printing through the BARS system which is in place between these bureaus.

3.6 Mainframe Technology

Current technology being used: IBM compatible mainframe running MVS OS390 (Y2K compliant) as the operating platform with Complete 4.6.3 as the TP monitoring system.

result schedules, schedule of candidate entries etc.

1 Memorex Impact Printer: Storage Tech 5000 lines per minute
Usage: Stickers, Technical Certificates & Standard JCL listing.

OTHER BUREAU FACILITIES

Similar facilities are being used at bureaus in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Pieter Morrisburg and Bloemfontein. Use of Mmabatho and Pietersburg is being investigated.

On site at the Departments:

Impact printers (various types)
Usage: Preprinted certificates for Technical Colleges, Stickers etc.

Many Desk Top Lasers: Standard A4 Print
Usage: All standard printwork Nation wide

Desk Top Laser (minimum 4mg Ram): (at least 1 per system)
Usage: Graphs for Mark Normalisation

4. RESPONSIBILITIES

Continued maintenance and upgrade of the systems, including the day to day management of the total Examination System.

For full details of the Software Support team responsibilities, reefer to the service level agreements.

The following is only a summary of the Software Support Team responsibilities:

The SOFTWARE SUPPORT TEAM maintains and optimises the EXAMINATIONS SYSTEM currently in use which includes the following:

• Corrective maintenance: Consisting of critical program errors requiring immediate attention eg. Abnormal termination of programmed.
• Minor changes and service requests: eg. Requests for additional reports.
• Tuning: Optimisation of programmes resulting in quicker program response, stability and cost savings.
• Major upgrades which are beyond the existing functionality of the system but have a direct impact on examinations.

The SOFTWARE SUPPORT TEAM DBA will check database space definitions for fragmentation's and make the necessary arrangements to have it repaired.

The SOFTWARE SUPPORT TEAM will also be responsible for the following system related activities:

• Maintaining of Quality Management standards (ISO9001 ) within the project
• System documentation such as user manuals etc.
• Database Administration
• Capacity Planning
• Change control
• System enhancements
• Ongoing optimisation of the system
• Implementing software and technology upgrades
• Analysis and new development
• Systems Administration support
• End User Training
• Staff training (technical).

Software Support team profiles are presented in the service level agreement.

5. STATISTICAL INFORMATION

Senior Certificate Candidates registered for the 199811 examination as on 1998/7/10

50 000 or 6.45% Growth is experienced between 1997 and 1998.

6. SUMMARY

6.1 These systems are currently running independently. Per province, the Senior Certificate systems are all running on the same source and technology except for Northern province and Gauteng who run a modified version of the current source. All systems run on the same technology and platform..

6.2 These systems could be downsized to run at each province independently or access could be given to each province to run on one large single database.

6.3 These systems have been developed using the latest technology available and have been kept up to date with the current technology.

6.4 These systems are predominantly online systems and could be adopted and adapted to nun on any platform' or environment that supports ADABAS NATURAL with minimal conversion costs.

6.5 These systems are the property of the State and all development costs have been paid for.

6.6 These examination systems currently control all the candidates country wide.

6.7 These systems, up until 1995, processed 67.7 % of the metric candidates Nation wide and now process 100% of candidates Nation wide.

6.8 These systems are currently being maintained by consultants.

Contents   Section 2    Section3