Delay in start for varsities

Tertiary institutions will have to wait until late February before they can commence with the placement of first-year students as the Basic Education Department continues to oversee the marking of matric exam scripts.

From today, all 181 marking centres across the nine provinces opened for marking around 14 million matric papers.

According to the department, around 45 000 markers had been recruited and are expected to work under strict Covid-19 compliant centres until 22 January when they are expected to conclude the marking process.

The announcement of the results is expected to take place on 23 February.

The department indicated that the marking process would be conducted in schools and other designated venues throughout the country where the use of personal protective equipment (PPEs) by all would be mandatory over the next 18 days.

The department has warned that it would charge those who had failed to disclose their positive Covid-19 status with misconduct.

The late marking of the matric exam scripts is, however, set to push back the commencement of the academic calendar of tertiary institutions.

Higher Education Department spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said while the academic year would now only start in April, it would not be jeopardised by the delay in exam results due to the Covid-19 pandemic as there was also a plan to end the academic year later for 2020 by mid-March this year.

“So we don’t think we will be affected much by the release of the results or any process thereto,” Mnisi said.

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