As the academic year draws to a close, preparations for one of the country’s largest annual education undertakings, the marking of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, are well under way. The DBE has laid out a detailed roadmap that reveals how far the sector has come in ensuring a smooth, credible, and efficiently managed marking process for the Class of 2025.

The official marking window opens on 28 November and runs until 13 December 2025. During this period, over 52,000 Grade 12 teachers from across South Africa will gather at designated marking centres to mark more than 14 million NSC answer scripts. Low-enrolment subjects will once again be centralised at the DBE Marking Centre in Pretoria to ensure consistent quality.

A notable addition to this year’s marking process is the early marking session scheduled from 15 to 25 November in Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga. This early start has been introduced to address shortages in language markers, a challenge that has become increasingly common due to rising enrolments and limited specialist capacity in a few selected subjects. By beginning early, the DBE aims to ease pressure on the main marking period and ensure that turnaround times remain intact. The recruitment of markers has also been completed well ahead of schedule. All markers have been officially appointed in every province, following strict criteria outlined in the Personnel Administration Measures (PAM) and related DBE policies. To qualify, educators must have appropriate teaching experience and subject-specific tertiary qualifications at second or third-year level. Higher-level marking roles, such as Senior Marker, Deputy Chief Marker, and Chief Marker require additional years of subject expertise and assessment experience to ensure that every script is handled with care and precision.

This year’s Grade 12 NSC marking is one of the biggest yet, with 52,552 markers appointed nationally. These educators are organised in a meticulous hierarchy that keeps the process transparent and quality driven. At the foundation are the markers, who mark allocated questions. Their work is quality-checked by Senior Markers, each overseeing a team of five markers and moderating at least 10% of their scripts. Deputy Chief Markers conduct full-script moderation across all Senior Markers under their supervision, verifying every recorded mark. Chief Markers review the broader picture by moderating at least one full script per batch, ensuring the sample includes all levels of marking. At the top, Internal Moderators provide the final layer of quality assurance, moderating at least one full script per batch and validating fairness and accuracy across the entire marking process. To support this massive undertaking, 184 marking centres will operate across all nine Provincial Education Departments (PEDs). These centres function as high-capacity administrative hubs, each equipped to receive, process, and manage large volumes of examination material to ensure efficiency and coordination, crucial to the overall success of the marking process.