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- Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced that the leaked matrix documents will be rewritten later this month.
- Test 2 in mathematics will be written on Tuesday, December 15, while test 2 in physical science will be written on Thursday, December 17.
- The Basic Education Department has established that around 195 students had access to the leaked documents.
The viral dissemination of information on cyber networks made it virtually impossible for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to accurately identify the number of students who have had access to the leaked tuition exams.
Last month, article 2 of mathematics and article 2 of physical sciences were leaked on Whatsapp, having been seen by an incalculable number of enrollees.
Therefore, the Minister of the Council of Education (CEM) has decided that a national rewriting of both documents is necessary.
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At a press conference on Friday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced that mathematics will be written on Tuesday, December 15 at 2:00 p.m. and physical sciences will be written on Thursday, December 17 at 9:00 a.m.
She said: “” It was not an easy decision to make, but it is necessary under the circumstances. We need to work hard to deal with the human factor in the exam system.
“It is clear that the people responsible for filtering the questionnaires are adults. CEM appreciates the work being done by the Directorate of Priority Criminal Investigations, the Hawks.
Arrests
“We welcome the arrest that has been made and look forward to more arrests. We really need to send a strong message that tampering with the national test is a serious crime.
“The DBE and PEDs must redouble their efforts to prevent future leaks and to pursue without fear or favor the culprits of these leaks or the wider distribution of the leaked questions or questionnaires.”
Themba Daniel Shikwambana, 31, was recently arrested following an investigation by the Hawks Serious Corruption Unit into the alleged theft of the 2020 Math Document 2.
According to the Hawks, Shikwambana works for a Johannesburg-based company that has a contract with the DBE to print the 2020 tuition exams.
Motshekga said that stakeholders, associations of school governing bodies, the association of school principals, teachers’ unions and the quality assurance agency, Umalusi, were consulted on the matter.
“There was a convergence in the need to protect the integrity of the exam and expose the culprits that put our students’ lives at risk. The National Senior Certificate (NSC) is the flagship qualification related to schooling. The credibility of the NSC exam is “It is of the utmost importance. Any lingering concerns regarding the credibility of NSC exams should be thoroughly investigated and addressed. Preventing prior access to the question document is what all security measures are heading towards, “he said.
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Motshekga also said there were rumors that the Business Studies document was leaked.
“But we acted quickly to replace that role. Following the initial reports of the leaks, CEM also made the decision to implement urgent measures to protect the exams. That is why we felt we could not disclose the measures implemented to secure the exams. It has been a costly exercise, but we had to act quickly in the interest of students and the general public, “he said.
Dr. Rufus Poliah, chief director of national assessment and public testing, said the first step the DBE took was to establish dissemination of the articles.
“There were at least 195 students who had access to the Mathematics document. What we could not securely and confidently assure, [was] to what extent the 195 would have shared this question paper with those around them, “he said.
