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By Sihle Mlambo 
7h ago
Johannesburg – A Cape Town tuition student criticized the Department of Basic Education’s decision to force more than 390,000 tuition students to rewrite math and physical science exams on December 15 and 17 after articles were leaked .
Elia Bordin from Milnerton High School, a member of the Western Cape Provincial Representative’s Student Council Forum, addressed her letter to the authorities of the Western Cape Department of Education, MEC Debbie Schafer, and to the Department of Basic Education, Minister Angie Motshekga and the director-general, Hubert Mweli.
In his letter, Bordin says it is unfair to force 391,000 students to rewrite because just under 200 students saw a leaked test.
“While we are all well aware of the high speed at which things can spread on social media platforms, there is no practical evidence that such spread has occurred as we are told that investigations into leaks are long and difficult.
“However, it is grossly unfair and totally unfair to use this as an excuse to place nearly 400,000 students in this stressful and uncomfortable condition, whereas official Hawks research so far has been able to reveal that less than 0.05% of Math students are in fact implicated in this leak.
“This decision is, therefore, discriminatory for all purposes, since few culprits are defining what the vast majority of those in the same group (grade 12) must collectively comply with, for something they have not done,” he said.
Bordin said the department had to take responsibility for not preventing the test leaks.
“These measures should be ensured both inside and outside the department itself, through printing contractors and delivery couriers.
“Given that the leak has reached an infinitesimal minority of students who are now forced by the department to rewrite the articles, it is a widely held expectation that the department should do nothing less than apologize profusely to innocent NSC candidates, as well as to their parents / guardians, for the enormous inconvenience it causes, ”he said.
Bordin said he had received correspondence from WCED, who told him that it was the national office in Pretoria that should respond when they had made the decision.
“At this point, many candidates are not only disappointed by the leaks themselves, but also feel betrayed by the disenfranchisement of students and their mental well-being by the department, as well as the total disregard of the consequences that the department’s own shortcomings have generated the families of the innocent students.
“It is therefore with this letter that I wish to formally oppose the department’s decision to place hundreds of thousands of innocent seniors in a stressful position to undergo rewriting of two NSC exams,” he said.
Meanwhile, Umalusi CEO Dr. Mafu Rakometsi said that the integrity of the math exam 2 and the physical science exam 2 had been compromised and that rewriting was in the best interests of the students.
“Because the documents were leaked on social networks, which is WhatsApp, we could not say what the full scope of the leak was. Social media has many tentacles and it is not possible to determine the limits of how far these articles could have gone. Do you wait until the mark happens?
” And if during marking you realize that there is a compromise of the paper, what do you do? It’s too late. So it is impossible to call all the students to rewrite, ”Rakometsi said.
Mweli said three organizations had taken the department to court over the decision to rewrite the exams.
MESS
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