The results of the September Matsec examinations are not late, the Matsec Board insisted today in reply to criticism by the SDM students' organisation.
Since 1994 the target date for publication of September results has always been September 27. This has always been met in spite of an increase of candidates and a change in regulations over the years. This deadline will also be met this year, the board said.
The board said that as of 2012, the September Intermediate and Advanced examination session was no longer a resit session. The new Matriculation Examination Regulations permit candidates to sit for more subjects and also allow for new registrations in September notwithstanding that the candidates would not have registered in May.
Consequently, besides the written examinations, as opposed to previous years, the Matsec Board needs to assess all the components of the examination, including the oral and aural parts in languages, and to organise interviews for coursework components in various subjects.
This had to be carried out in addition to the marking of scripts and the administrative work involved.
In previous years the number of candidates sitting for Intermediate and Advanced level examinations used to amount to just over 1,000 whereas in the current session there are 2810 candidates sitting for 57 subjects.
"In Advanced and Intermediate English alone, over a thousand oral examinations had to be organised whilst in previous years no orals were held since oral results of the May session used to be carried over to September. There were similar increases in other subjects with an oral component such as all foreign languages, Systems of Knowledge, Computing, Home Economics and Human Ecology, and Information Technology. Because of these increases, the last oral sessions were held on the 11th September."
Written and practical examinations were held between August 28 and September 5. This was followed by a period of 12 working days during which these processes had to be carried out: conversion of index numbers to office numbers; distribution of scripts to markers; marking of scripts; collation of marks; grade awarding, processing of results - taking into consideration the results of the last five years - to identify those candidates who have qualified for the Matriculation Certificate over this period; printing of result slips, and preparation for posting and sending results by sms.
The SEC results in six subjects for over 1800 candidates have been sent today and Advanced and Intermediate level results will be sent shortly. Last year, SEC results were sent September 25 and the Advanced and Intermediate level results were sent on September 26.