[ad_1]
Umalusi told the Pretoria high court on Thursday that it would be unfair to tuition students to have to rewrite two issues that were leaked to wait until February to find out their results will not be approved.
The quality insurer argued that a rewrite was the only option to ensure that the students’ grades were not “questioned or questionable”, considering that the integrity of the two leaked documents has been “irrevocably compromised”.
Judge Norman Davis heard today the joint request of several students and the Democratic Teachers Union of South Africa (Sadtu). The applicants opposed the decision of the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, that, after the leak of article two of mathematics and physical sciences, there would be a national rewriting of the two subjects.
The date for the math rewriting is next Tuesday; Physical science will be rewritten on December 17.
The parties took the case urgently and want Davis to rule that the decision announced by Motshekga is unconstitutional, invalid and must be overturned. They also want the court to stop Motshekga from going ahead with the rewrite.
Umalusi was criticized for the advice of all applicants who alleged that the quality insurer intimidated Motshekga into making the decision by saying it would not certify the results of the two subjects. The lawyer argued that Umalusi had not considered other available options in lieu of a rewrite.
The court heard voices from top management within the department and the Council of Ministers of Education, the body that comprises the minister’s education MECs and the department’s director general, opposed the new wording. Still, Umalusi had been adamant that a rewrite was necessary, because the leaks had compromised the integrity of the exam.
Quintus Pelser, the attorney for Lienke Spies and three other school students in Pretoria, said that after receiving the preliminary investigative report on the leak, Umalusi had already made a decision on the rewrite and did not wait for a follow-up report.
“From that report, they never moved or considered anything else except a rewrite,” he said.
He argued that Umalusi had prejudged the whole matter. “They don’t know their place. They are the bully who is ordering the department what to do in the name of integrity, in the name of ethics and everything else. ”
Pelser argued that Umalusi did not consider that the students may have gone on vacation or that the handicapped students did not have money to return to their schools. One of the applicants Pelser represents is getting married on Sunday and would not have time to prepare for Tuesday’s exam.
At a press conference on Friday, Motshekga had said that because the leaked documents had been shared on social media, it would be impossible to establish how many students had access to the question papers.
This was a repeated claim in court by Chris Erasmus, on behalf of Motshekga, and Dennis Fine, for Umalusi. However, Davis told Fine that he could not find a factual basis for the claim that a rewrite would have been the only way.
The judge said the department and Umalusi appeared to have relied on speculation that because the documents were leaked on social media, it would be difficult to establish how many students had seen them.
He added that the general director of basic education, Mathanzima Mweli, said in his affidavit that the newspaper had gone viral on Twitter. However, he said there were no facts on which to base that claim. The judge said it appeared that, according to Umalusi, all other opinions were unreasonable.
“Umalusi didn’t care that everyone else said ‘don’t rewrite.’ It just said, ‘If you don’t rewrite, we won’t certify,’ “Davis said.
But Fine argued that this was not the case. She said the decision to rewrite was not a knee-jerk or knee-jerk reaction, but was based on the fear that if the leak was on social media, she might not be arrested.
In an affidavit, Umalusi CEO Mafu Ramoketsi said several considerations prompted the decision to finalize a rewrite. He said that given the method of dissemination of the leaked documents, the integrity of the entire examination system was in question.
However, Sadtu’s court documents establish that there was no history of a national rewrite in the country and that, when leaks had occurred in previous years, the culprits were dealt with without involving “innocent apprentices.”
Sadtu’s lawyer Wisani Sibuyi said that WhatsApp was a broadcast medium even in previous leaks, however there was never a national rewrite. He also questioned why the department did not postpone drafting the documents upon realizing they were leaking or printing a supporting document.
However, Ramoketsi said the leaks from previous years were different because they could be traced to a certain number of students.
He said Umalusi was unable to issue certificates when the investigations were still ongoing, especially considering that the integrity of the two documents has already been irreparably compromised.
The students’ attorney also argued that they were not given enough time to prepare for the rewriting and that in the two days of rewriting, some had to write other exams in the morning.
Although Rakometsi agreed that a rewrite is “inconvenient and disappointing,” he said “the bias applicants complain about is not, respectively, serious.”
“The inconvenience, however, is mitigated by the fact that at least 11 days’ notice of the rewrite was given and preparations for these documents have already been made. The drawback is unmatched by the bias of postponing the enrollment of these candidates for a year, ”Rakometsi said.
“Applicants will not suffer any irreparable harm if they are asked to rewrite the leaked documents. Taking the exam a second time, especially in circumstances where preparations have already been completed, cannot cause irreparable harm. On the other hand, there is a serious risk that they will not receive certificates on the completion of the investigation if it is shown that the leakage of the paper was not contained, ”said Rakometsi.
In an affidavit, Mweli said, if the redrafting decision were overturned, it would mean that the ongoing investigation into the leaks would be completed in just a few months from now and this would have far-reaching consequences for students.
“Pending the completion of the investigations, the certification of these two issues will be suspended. That will lead to the fact that these few hundred thousand students, some of whom want to enroll in institutions of higher education or use the results of these subjects for any purpose, will not be able to do so, “he said.
“That will [mean] these students will be forced to miss a full academic year. That must be weighed against the inconvenience and interruption of having to rewrite the two tracks. “
Some students and their parents were present in court on Thursday. Davis will issue his sentence on Friday.
[ad_2]
