Thousands of Eastern Cape people who passed their Grade 12 final exams before 2016 have yet to receive their National Senior Certificates (NSC).
According to the provincial department of education’s head of assessment and examinations, Mzimhle Mabona, in July this year 9,580 were still waiting for their certificates as the department battled a backlog.
Provincial education spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani said the backlogs dated back to 2011-2012.
The acting education MEC Mlungisi Mvoko told the Bhisho legislature two months ago, that more than 400 individuals who had passed matric in 2017 were still waiting for their matric certificates.
Mvoko, who was responding DA MPL Edmund van Vuuren’s questions in September, listed a number of reasons for the delays. Mvoko said these were due to invalid identities and marks that were still outstanding, while some results had not been finalised.
On Thursday Pulumani said some of the outstanding 2017 certificates had since been issued to the recipients, but did not specify how many.
In a July letter sent to acting deputy director-general Penny Vinjevold with the subject line “project for resulting backlog,” Mabona, states the backlog occurred due to pupils who were “rejected” by the council for quality assurance in general and further education and training, Umalusi.
“These are the learners who, though they were sent to Umalusi through the database, could not be certified for a number of reasons, ranging from marks, that were different from Umalusi and quality assurance data,” stated Mabona.
In the letter, dated July 19, Mabona requested approval for a budget of close to R70,000 to accommodate a team to be brought in for nine days in July and August to assist in clearing the backlog.
The request for funding was authorised.
Umalusi spokesperson Lucky Ditaunyane told the Daily Dispatch the certification process was dependent on the submission of data by the department to them.
“Umalusi issues certificates within seven working days if error free data is submitted.
“The department has been engaged in cleaning their system, and a number of outstanding certificates for previous examinations were issued over the past few months,” said Ditaunyane.
He directed the Dispatch to the provincial department of education.
Pulumani said the delays were due to duplicate registration of pupils, invalid and conflicting ID numbers, involvement irregularities and outstanding marks, among other reasons.
Pulumani said the department had since appointed a team of six officials, consisting of five district officials and a provincial officer who underwent training in the Northern Cape on how to deal with errors in the system.
Pulumani said the team was expected to complete all outstanding transactions by the end of this month.
“These learners have passed their matric exams but now they have nothing to show for it. It has hampered them in registering at tertiary institutions, applying for bursaries, and applying for jobs,” said Van Vuuren...