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By Good Forest 
51m ago
Cape Town: An ongoing investigation by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) that has revealed that eight of the nine provinces have been affected by the math document 2 leak will determine whether the rewriting would be national or local.
Initially, it appeared that only 12th grade students from Limpopo and Gauteng found the leaked paper.
According to the department, its spokesman Elijah Mhlanga received an email around 1.37 am Monday from a university student in Gauteng who runs an NGO that provides support to students.
The student had the completed exam and reported that four students were asking for help with answers in one section of the exam, but refused.
During that day, more provinces called and it was established that the paper circulated in the WhatsApp groups.
To deal with the leak, the department has developed a three-tier approach, he said yesterday during a press conference on the National Higher Certificate exams and the results of the Council of Ministers of Education (CEM) meeting.
According to Rufus Poliah, chief director of national and public assessment, phase one of the exams will comprise a research team from the South African Qualifications Authority, Umalusi, Universities South Africa and DBE.
“This research team will constitute the first level. They will have to complete their first phase work by November 30. This is so that if a rewrite is necessary, it can be done before December 15th. Then the second phase will begin. The objectives of this investigation team will be to establish the extent of the leak. At this stage we cannot say that the leak is national because that would mean that all students had access to the questionnaire, ”said Poliah.
He said the scope of the leak will establish whether the rewrite should be national or localized.
Poliah said the second phase would be a recommendation to Minister Angie Motshekga on how to ensure that the exam as a whole is not compromised.
“They also need to establish the source of the leak and the measures to be taken. The ultimate goal is to make recommendations for the improvement of the exam system to avoid a recurrence.
“The report on all this will be given to Minister Motshekga and Umalusi,” said Poliah.
Level two will involve intervention by the Hawks to obtain the source of the leak, while level three will be long-term, when a team of forensic experts will conduct a full audit in all nine provinces to verify the weakness.
Grade 12 testing began on November 5 and will end on December 15.
“The 2020 academic year will be considered the most challenging, complex and unpredictable.
“This exam is the largest so far with 1,058,699 candidates. The examination is carried out in 8,200 examination centers in all provinces, with 80,000 proctors.
“Two hundred and sixteen question articles are being written with more than 10 million scripts in print,” Motshekga said.
He said Covid-19 was initially challenging, with cases continuing to affect exams, but collaboration with the Health Department had helped allow those infected to write the exam.
The Eastern Cape led with 53 candidates, followed by the Free State with 23 and the Western Cape with 7.
National senior certified candidates who test positive for Covid-19 will also have the opportunity to take tests from their homes if there are no quarantine facilities nearby, as long as there are no disruptions and it will also be under strict supervision.
Cape times
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