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Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga.
- The Basic Education Department says it has established that one of the tuition exams was leaked from the government’s own printers.
- The department still believes a rewrite is necessary to put to bed issues related to the credibility, integrity and fairness of examinations.
- The department will use other avenues, through its legal teams, to address concerns in the Gauteng High Court ruling that overturned a decision that the documents should be rewritten.
Test 2 Physical Sciences exam for matrices leaked from the government’s own printing presses, established the Department of Basic Education (DBE).
Although the department confirmed that a private printing company was the source of the Math Test 2 exam, it established that the source of the second leak was government printers.
“The full Physical Sciences article was leaked from [the] government printers, confirming what we said in court, that although we have seen some questions from some social networks, we believed that the leak was more extensive than we thought. And the ongoing daily developments seem to confirm what we stand for in court, “said CEO Hubert Mathanzima Mweli.
The DBE has held that the Gauteng Superior Court ruling that overturned the decision that the two leaked documents should be rewritten did not address the credibility, integrity and fairness of the 2020 Senior National Certification Exam.
The department says more details about the government printers will be released later and that the Hawks, who are currently investigating the matter, will address that.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga briefed the media on the state of readiness for the 2021 academic year on Thursday and provided an update on ongoing investigations into the leak.
Rewrite the ‘only way’
Motshekga said the department firmly believed, and continues to believe, that a rewrite was the only way to address issues related to the integrity, credibility and fairness of the documents.
He said the department had established that the leak was not localized, but widespread, and that all nine provinces were involved.
“We must say that some of the High Court findings are at odds with the applicable basic education legislative provisions; and some findings were made against the department on issues that were not even raised in court documents,” Motshekga said.
The department said that while it was not appealing the ruling, its legal team was exploring other avenues to address “some of the errors” it picked up from the ruling.
News24 previously reported that Judge Norman Davis was dealing with issues related to who made the decision to have the matrices rewrite the exams.
READ | Motshekga Was Never Authorized To Have Matrices Rewrite Exams, Court Finds
Davis also referred to the minutes of a meeting where a decision was made that the candidates rewrite the exams.
“There the DG (director general) does not appear as responsible for decision-making, but the Council of Ministers of Education (CEM) does. However, the CEM is not a formal body or an administrator that appears in the regulation or is thereby empowered to make the contested decision, “Davis said at the ruling.
The judge added: “The Director General never appeared in these documents or sequence of events as the decision maker. Any assertion by the minister to the contrary is clearly an afterthought, devoid of factual basis and is rejected.”
But Motshekga said Thursday that the meeting the judge referred to was one in which he was about to announce the decision after consulting with interested parties.
Motshekga said:
So that meeting you’re talking about was the announcement of the decision. It was not a query, because the query should have already occurred. And those are the things we’re saying, they probably hadn’t read our newspapers. Those are the things that we really think should be corrected because they involve wrong impressions as if we don’t know what laws govern us. We are not conducting exams for the first time. And the rules about the exams are very clear.
The department decided not to appeal the sentence to avoid leaving the candidates traumatized and not knowing whether they would have to rewrite the exams or not.
Motshekga said tests for three subjects were leaked: Business Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics.
Results expected in February
Fortunately, he said the department had received information ahead of time and an alternate questions document for Business Studies was issued.
Motshekga added that there were multiple hoaxes in which question papers were leaked, but according to DBE investigations, all three were the only ones that could be confirmed. Because an alternative article was written for Business Studies, it was no longer considered a problem.
Scoring for the exams will begin on January 4 and the department is expected to report the irregularities to the quality assurance council, Umalusi, and wait for it to make an announcement on the integrity, credibility and fairness of the exams.
The department is expected to release the tuition results on February 22 and candidates are expected to receive their certificates on February 23.
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