| 5.1.1 | Establishment and Registration of Examination Centres |
Centres that wish to offer examinations must register with the provincial departments or other approved examining bodies. Examining bodies must establish and register examination centres, in accordance with the following guidelines:
| 5.1.1.1 | Provincial ABET Centres |
| (a) | All institutions registered with the provincial education department, and conducting ABET Level 4 Examinations for the first time, should register with the provincial department of education on or before a given date determined by the Head of Department. |
| (b) | Application for registration of an examination centre may be made on a prescribed form, which should be available from the regional office district offices of the provincial education department. |
| (c) | Examining bodies must develop criteria for the registration of examination centres, which may include the following: |
| • | Registration of centre as an educational institution |
| • | Suitable venue to accommodate candidates, i.e. sufficient space and appropriate furniture to seat candidates |
| • | Clearance in terms of the local health and fire services by-laws |
| • | Provision of proper lighting |
| • | Availability of water and toilet facilities |
| • | Suitably qualified teaching staff, unemployed, retired educators or selected members of the community who can be trained as invigilators |
| • | Availability of a strong room for the safekeeping of examination material |
| • | Provision of guarantees to cover the charges relating to electricity, water, rates, taxes and the rental of the premises for the duration of the examination, in the case of private centres |
| (d) | Examination centres must, be visited by an official from the district office, regional office or head office, to verify that the necessary facilities required for conducting the examination, are available at the Centre. |
| (e) | After the application has been processed by the examination directorate of a provincial education department, and provided that the examination centre complies with all the prescribed requirements, a centre number should be allocated to the institution and the Head of the Institution should be informed accordingly. |
| (f) | The provincial examination directorates have a right to cancel the registration of a centre at any given time if the centre does not comply with the prescribed requirements. |
| 5.1.1.2 | Private ABET Centres |
| (a) | Private ABET centres can register themselves with an approved Examining Body and will have to avail and subject themselves to the quality assurance processes of the examining body. |
| (b) | The provincial education department has no obligation to provide examination centres for private candidates registered with a private institution. However, private institutions may negotiate with the provincial departments to accommodate their learners, where capacity is available. |
| (c) | The head of a centre for private candidates must apply for registration with the provincial education department. |
| (d) | Should the centre be approved as an examination centre, a centre number should be issued and the centre manager of the centre donned accordingly. |
| (e) | With the consent of the main campus, satellite centres may register under their own names with the provincial education department. Prisons where examinations are administered may register as examination centres where after prison officials will be trained as invigilators. |
| 5.2 | Appointment and duties of Chief Invigilators and Invigilators |
Annexure D provides the details regarding the appointment and duties of chief invigilators and invigilators.
The examining body must formulate procedures for the administration of the appointment and duties of chief invigilators and invigilators based on the policies in Annexure D.
| 5.3 | Admission of learners to the examination room |
In respect of admission of candidates to the examination room, invigilators must ensure that every candidate produces his/her admission letter as well as proof of identity, preferably his/her official identity document, driver's licence or passport on admission to the examination room. Invigilators must enforce this admission requirement rigorously. Centre Managers must encourage learners to apply for Identity Documents timeously before the examinations commences.
If a candidate fails to produce the required documentation, an irregularity will be declared and the candidate d l be allowed to present the required documentation to the invigilator after the examination, failing to do so the normal procedure pertaining to irregularities must be followed.
The return of scripts directly to the provincial head office or any other collection point, must be handled with the same care and security as the question papers, and therefore examining bodies must have clear procedures to be followed in the return of scripts.
Annexure E outlines certain principles that must be adhered to when the examining body develops the administrative procedures for the return of scripts.
| 5.5 | Examination monitoring team |
All examining bodies must establish a structure to monitor examinations. The following may be considered when establishing such structures:
| 5.5.1 | Functions of the Monitoring Team |
The main function of the examination monitoring team is to ensure that the examination is conducted in accordance with the rules and procedures determined by the examining body.
The monitoring team must visit the examination centres before, during and even after the examination and report on, amongst others, the following:
| • | General management of the examination. |
| • | Condition of examination rooms |
The marking process, as described in paragraph 6, should also be monitored. The monitoring team should also visit the marking centres to observe the marking process. The examining body should send a consolidated monitoring report to all centres at the end of the examination.
| 5.5.2 | Composition of the Monitoring Team |
The provincial education department must determine the composition of the monitoring team, the monitoring team may include representatives from outside the provincial education department so as to ensure the credibility of the monitoring team.
