Today kicks off the 2022 May / June examination rewrites as Matrics around the country give their papers another shot.

Elijah Mhlanga, Chief Director: Communications & Media: Department of Basic Education, provides some numbers for these proceedings revealing that 5 236 exam centres in South Africa will host almost 300 000 students.

“More than 290 680 people will rewrite their NSC and SC exams from today! The National Senior Certificate candidates have written the NSC in 2021 and previous years but did not attain the full requirements of the qualification. If at first you don’t succeed, there’s still a second chance,” Mhlanga writes.

Registrations for these rewrites closed in February and allowed most students to participate. While factors such as poor health and even death in the family listed as qualifying criteria for the rewrites, any student who simply wanted to improve their standings was also allowed to register.

The timetable for the rewrites was released back in March and can be seen in the tweet below from the official Gauteng Department of Education account.

For those who would prefer a PDF of this, it’s available on the Department of Basic Education (DBE) website.

On this first day of the rewrites there is a focus on language papers with the first section of the table, from 09:00, occupied with Arabic, French, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Greek, Serbian, Spanish, Hindi and more.

In the section session from 14:00 there is only English exams paper one for Home Language (HL), First Additional Language (FAL) and Second Additional Language (SAL) all written at the same time.

The 2022 May / June exam period will last for seven weeks ending on 23rd June.

Another rewrite period after this one will also be held in October / November this year.

The 2022 May/June NSC/SC examination timetable has been finalised. @DBE_SA @GautengProvince @Lesufi pic.twitter.com/i2gcRE4gwN

— Gauteng Department of Education (@EducationGP1) March 8, 2022