Umalusi just reaffirmed that it is ready to start the year-end test. Load shedding, however, has been identified as a significant worry for the impending tests.
As students in schools around the nation get ready for the end-of-year exams in 2023, ongoing load shedding is still a major problem.
Umalusi, the country’s quality assurance organization for exams, has consequently advised assessment organizations to take the necessary safeguards to stop the ongoing load shedding from having an impact on the upcoming final exams.
uMalusi’s Biki Lepota said that, based on the findings of their recent audits that have been conducted on the participating assessment bodies, the quality assurance is well prepared to oversee the upcoming exams.
All the assessment bodies have been audited we have applied the framework that Umalusi uses to gauge the readiness of the assessment bodies to conduct and manage the examinations based on the findings we can safely say we are ready
However, despite this, Lepota has also conceded that Umalusi is concerned about persistent power outages and water shortages in some parts of the country. These concerns remain, despite the contingency measures put in place to ensure that the problem is manageable.
The entity has been in discussions with assessment bodies advising them to begin discussions with Eskom and the Department of Energy for more solutions.
“We are confident that those discussions are ongoing, especially with regards to the writing of examinations which require electricity availability and those and subjects are subjects such as your Computer Application Technology as well as your Information Technology (I.T),” he added.
Meanwhile SADTU General Secretary, Mugwena Maluleke says that he does expect this to be an easy exam, as most learners have lost a lot of learning time during the peak of the pandemic.
He added that while assessing the final exam results, more attention needs to be paid to the effectiveness of teaching and learning.
