Pretoria - Umalusi says it will not approve the release of the results of all learners implicated in a leak of Mathematics Paper 2 in two schools in Limpopo during the 2016 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations.
Umalusi is the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training. The quality assurance body on Thursday said the leak does not go beyond 100 learners.
Investigations by a Task Team, established by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to identify the source of the security breach and the extent of the spread of the access to the question paper, confirmed the leak.
The investigation involved the Hawks, South African Police Service (SAPS) as well as private investigators.
“Interviews with learners and officials were also conducted.”
Umalusi said investigative marking was employed to determine the extent to which learners may have benefited.
“…It has been decided that there is no need for a rewrite of Mathematic Paper 2. However, the Limpopo Education Department’s non-adherence to some of the security measures outlined in the Norms and Standards must be addressed in the next examination cycle.
“Umalusi is very concerned about this trend and takes the view that strong action must be taken against those learners and officials who have made themselves guilty of these acts of dishonesty.”
The quality assurance body said the investigation is still continuing.
It expressed bitter disappointment over the evidence from department, which indicates that the phenomenon of group copying has not been completely eliminated.
This year has seen a limited number of incidents involving group copying in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga.
“Further investigations are underway and the results from all the implicated centres will remain blocked. It is also worth noting that detection of these irregularities attests to a very functional and vigilant system.
“Irregularities occur in all examinations or assessments and the examination system must have mechanisms to manage irregularities, to avoid lapses in examination credibility.”
However, Umalusi said whether an irregularity becomes a threat to the system depends on the nature and extent of the irregularity.
In order to mitigate the sources of variability that impact on learner performance from one year to another, Umalusi said standardisation of results is employed as an important quality assurance process used the world-over.
“Standardisation aims (in the main) to achieve equivalence of the standard of the examination across years, subjects and assessment bodies and to deliver a relatively constant product to the market: universities, colleges and employers.” - SAnews.gov.za
