Department of Higher Education and Training Portfolio Committee Briefing by the DHET, SITA and Umalusi on Certification Status: NC(V), GETC:ABET, NATED and NND 23 May 2018

Certification Progress

Certification Summary The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has been working in partnership with the college management, State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and Umalusi to clear the outstanding certificates for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and CET Colleges and improve overall examination processes. The overall 201711-201803 resulting and certification processing, in comparison to previous years, have been improved. This is evident with the reduction of queries received from the colleges and students and more effective collaboration between DHET, Colleges, SITA and Umalusi. Since last year the Department has managed to process and issue a total number of 69 219 of outstanding NC (V) certificates of which 31 444 were withdrawn. As a result a total of 37 772 certificates for 200711-201711 exam cycle have been processed and released to colleges on weekly basis.

Certification Summary An E-Query IT system was piloted in seven colleges in Gauteng province from September 2017 and rolled out to all the province from January 2018 to enable the candidates to log any examinations query on line. Currently a total of 1 309 queries have been logged of which 779 were resolved and 44 were cancelled. The bulk of the queries relates to NATED qualifications.

Certification Summary Cont. The initial focus was to clear the NC(V) certification backlog. The overall system functionality has been improved and certification is under control with the most recent 201711-201803 examination cycles having been executed with minimal challenges. The NATED certification for the 201711 examination cycle has been executed with minimal challenges. The historical IT system challenges experienced with the NATED consolidation was addressed through bringing it in line with the NC(V). The consolidated certification remains work in progress as there have been few matters arising which are being addressed on an ongoing basis. The N1,N2,N4-N6 consolidation certification up to the 201611 have been executed and the N3 consolidation up to 201608. Consolidated certification is planned to be completed by the end of August 2018. Historical IT system challenges resulted in the misalignment of the data and checks to bring the data in line are now being made.

Certification Summary Cont. The GETC:ABET (CET) resulting for the 201711 examinations was completed successfully in December 2017 with minimal challenges compared to previous examination cycles. Umalusi introduced new requirements for resulting datasets around the processing post the bulk resulting processes. The changes were made on the IT system, processing has commenced and it is planned that the resulting and certification will be concluded by end of June 2018. Challenges were experienced with the combined certification extraction program for candidates who sat for examinations 201111-201711 which were subsequently addressed as at the 18 May 2018. Challenges continue to be experienced with the combined certification extraction program for candidates who sat for examinations prior 201011 and are being addressed.

NC (V) Certification Current (201711-201803) The initial certification for 201711 Level 2-4 were executed and certificates released. As at the 19 May 2018 a total of 10 788 records (L2 - 7 176,L3 - 2 525, L4 - 1 087) remained not certified due to data/IT system processing challenges. Processing for 201711 Level 2-4 certificates including supplementary is ongoing. NC (V) 201611-201711   As at the 09 April 2018 there is currently 10 788 NC (V) certificates that need to be processed. These records relates to change of marks , moderation records discrepancies and alleged examination irregularities (e.g. crib notes). These numbers are against the backdrop of more than a million records which are already certified.  . Where is marked in blue SITA will update the numbers. Where marked in red Umalusi will update the stats.

NC(V) Cont. Completeness Test NC (V) certificate backlog completeness test is ongoing, the completeness test process seeks to corroborate the completeness of certification of candidates and in preparation for the migration of data into new IT system. To date for example 73 records have been identified with the same ID but with different sequence numbers. The Department has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Home Affairs to integrate the exam IT system with Home Affairs ID number information system to inhibit these challenges around personal details (i.e. invalid Date of Birth, names and last names).

NATED Certification NATED Current 201711-201804 201711 examination certificates were executed and released for the exam sitting. As at the 18 May the NATED certificates for the November 2017(i.e. 201711) cycle were released as scheduled with the exception of 3 073 records where data/IT system challenges have been detected in candidate records. Processing for these records is ongoing. 201804 examination results were executed and released in May 2018. The certificates will be issued in August 2018. NATED Certification Backlog 201511-201708 Examination certificates were executed and released for single exam sittings.

NATED Cont. IT system certification consolidation functionality has since been corrected and has been used to reduce the certificates for candidates who passed in multiple exams sittings. Some consolidated certificates are yet to be issued and it estimated that all consolidated certificates will be issued by mid July 2018. DHET and SITA further commissioned a completeness test. The principles applied as well as program changes brought about to reduce NC(V) certification backlog are being applied for NATED qualifications. A program to list records not yet certified for an exam sitting indicate that 60 832 records impacting 53 150 candidates but not all will lead to issuing of certificates. These includes records where business and IT system processes were not concluded. It is planned that by the end of August 2018 these records will be certified.

CET Certification CET Current   CET Current 201711 examination results were executed and released. The IT system changes were completed to align to the new requirements to improve resulting and certification processes similar to NATED and NC(V) qualifications. The processing of the resulting return files are in process and will be finalised by end of May 2018. The certification processing is planned to be completed by end of June 2018.

CET Cont. CET Certification Backlog   CET Certification Backlog The processing of resulting and certification is executed at the provincial level as opposed to NATED and NC(V) which are executed at the national level. As at 18 May 2018, PEDs reported that 31 231 of candidates who sat for GETC: ABET Level 4 examinations in 201511-201611 remained outstanding. This is 15 324 less from 46 555 reported previously. It is planned that these records will be certified by end of June 2018. While in the main learners who sat for exams have been certificated there is an emerging backlog for candidates who passed in multiple examinations across different provinces as there were no IT system functionality to meet this requirement. The IT system functionality has been provisioned for 2010 and beyond and province officials trained on the use thereof. The additional functionality prior 2010 is expected to be deployed by end May 2018.

Certification Queries Do away with the mass printing of subject certificates which have no value other than to confuse the recipients thereof. An individual statement of results is issued per cycle as formal evidence of performance in an examination – in the 3rd quarter DG wrote to Umalusi requesting that that automatic printing of subject certificates be phased out. Umalusi has acceded to request and directives have already been amended (Annexure B). The implementation commenced and is expected that by end of the February 2018 both the Department and Umalusi IT systems will be enhanced to accommodate this development. Certificates have been dispatched to the examination centres and colleges are expected to report any certification queries to the Department for any candidate who might not have received the certificate. Colleges officials and candidates are encouraged to log all queries on the newly implemented e-Query system.

Certification Queries Certificates have been dispatched to the examination centres and colleges are expected to report any certification queries to the Department for any candidate who might not have received the certificate. DHET and Umalusi have put measures in place to process candidates records where by the private colleges were in arrears in terms of certification fees. outstanding fees to. Since last year the Department and Umalusi have managed to process and release 2 169 certificates after payment by candidates. As at May 2018 a total number 7 310 of candidates were certified and are encouraged to pay for these certificates to facilitate the release. Colleges officials and candidates are encouraged to log all queries on the newly implemented e-Query system.

National N Diploma

NND Progress It need to emphasised that the National N Diploma applications are now on average processed within a month as opposed to three – six months which is a standard turnaround time to process National N Diploma applications from the 1 July 2017. Accordingly, the backlogs in the processing of applications for the National Diploma has been eliminated.

Development of the New Integrated IT system for examination

Development of New IT system for examination The Department appointed Resolve Solution Partners (Pty) Ltd for the development of the Integrated Information Technology System using modern technology, for examinations for a period of 3 years. Subsequent to this the Service Level Agreement was signed and the contract was formally initiated in April 2016. The new DHET exam Integrated Information Technology System will inevitable present different interfaces, centralization or integration of exam information system and myriad business processes such as student enrolment, resulting and enquiry management to the exam IT system users at both the Department and TVET colleges.

Development of New IT system for examination The development of the new integrated examination computer system is at an advance stage and data migration process which entails the transfer of the old SITA data to the new system is ongoing. The following modules have been completed : Access and security, Student management, Exam centres Management, Payments. Currently the resulting staff members and super users are involved in testing to assess whether modules meets the user requirements.

Development of New IT system for examination Cont. The following modules are planned to be completed in March 2019 : Resulting, Certification, Irregularities, Remark , Timetable, Exam Preparations, Business Intelligence and Reporting. Key functionalities are planned to be piloted with the 201811 exam cycle in parallel to the existing IT systems.

Thank You