Department and learners undertake provincial pledge signing ceremony

02 November 2020

An official pledge signing ceremony from the Northern Cape Department of Education, took place at Ratang Thuto High School at Postmasburg on Monday 02 November 2020.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of the department, unions, staff and personnel of the school, SGB members, parents, media members and most importantly, the class of 2020.

The department wants to ensure that the National Senior Certificate examinations are free of any irregularities and always wants to adhere to the norms and standards of the National Senior Certificate examinations.

The year 2020 was a difficult and abnormal school year due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lock-down. The department, schools, teachers and learners looked for additional resources and programmes to repair the damage.  These included amongst others, assistance from mental health, radio programmes, e-learning platforms and learning support to teachers to help the weakest and most vulnerable learners to catch up.

The department expects the learners writing the exams, to be honest and do their own work during the exams and to refrain from any type of examination irregularities, such as found in possession of a cell phone, copying unauthorised material or from a fellow candidate, receiving help from a teacher or friend, not handing in annexures for certain subjects. using a friend’s exam number or a wrong number, not sitting according to the seating plan and accepting imposed answers.

Imposed answers will definitely be detected at the marking centre, resulting in serious consequences. The investigation and hearings are a long process, which may be concluded after the opening of tertiary institutions, with the consequent results, one of which could be that your results will be declared null and void and you could also be barred from writing the National Senior Certificate examination for between one and three years.

The department hopes that this pledge signing ceremony will make learners aware of the dangers of any irregularities.  Remember, you have a choice, make the right decision.

The department strongly appeals to parents and communities to support their children to do their best and make the Northern Cape proud.

NC Department of Education