Cape Town - The South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) – the examination board of UCT Online High School, said in response to grievances raised by learners and parents over the 2024 NSC exam results, that it was dealt with by Umalusi.
Earlier this week, the group of disgruntled learners and parents took to TikTok with claims that learning in their final year was affected by technical issues, absent teachers and pre-recorded lessons.
The group told the Cape Argus they were calling for a remark after learners had done well during their third term examination and preliminary examinations.
Chris Klopper, CEO of SACAI, said in his response to the allegations and call for a remark, that procedures had to be followed via Umalusi.
“This is the first occasion that we have been informed of the alleged absenteeism of teachers and disruption of classes,” he said.
“We believe that it is an internal matter on which UCTOLS must be able to comment.
“Regarding the remarking of answer scripts, the following points are pertinent.
“We sent out a newsletter to candidates at the end of last year regarding various issues that may emanate from the resulting process, among them, the following:
- The status of SBA marks and how discrepancies between the exam marks and the SBA marks are approached by Umalusi.
- There are numerous misconceptions about such marks and the underpinning principles.
- The process to remark, recheck, view and rewrite question papers. “Considering the above, we have changed our approach regarding the remarking of question papers, i.e. previously a candidate requesting the remarking of a subject, could not select a particular paper.
- We are now changing it to e.g. English Home Language, a selection between (or all three), Paper 1 (Language) (70 marks), Paper 2 (Literature (80 marks) and Paper 3 (Creative Writing).”
Parent, Carmen du Toit, said they called for the papers to be remarked at no cost and that there had to be a review on how papers were marked during the final exams as many learner’s marks had dropped.
UCT Online High School spokesperson, Darryn Lee, said learners were given full support.
The school said via their website that the class of 2024 had achieved 566 distinctions.