Durban - THE Department of Basic Education yesterday confirmed that the Physics paper 2 matric exam leak originated from the government printing works.
The Director-General of Basic Education, Mathanzima Mweli, was speaking at a briefing in Pretoria yesterday that was also attended by Minister Angie Motshekga and Deputy Minister Reginah Mhaule, on the state of readiness for the 2021 school year.
The latest revelation comes after the arrest of Themba Daniel Shikwabana, 31, who worked at a Johannesburg-based printing company contracted by the department, for the leaked Maths paper 2 earlier this month.
Mweli said further details would be provided by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks).
The department had wanted both papers to be rewritten however the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union, some pupils and Afriforum successfully challenged the decision in the Gauteng High Court. The court set aside the decision to rewrite and ordered that the exam scripts from both exams be marked.
“The whole Physics paper 2 question paper leaked from government printers and confirmed what we said in court, that while we have seen some questions from some social media, we believe that the leak was wider than we thought,” Mweli said.
Motshekga said the Business Studies paper was also leaked, “but fortunately we got the information in good time and we replaced it with another paper”.
Mhaule said that once the investigation was completed and the department and the Hawks had identified those responsible for the leaks, they would be held accountable internally as well by the criminal justice system.
The decision not to appeal against the court’s decision against the rewrite was due to the mental and psychological impact it would have had on pupils, said Mweli.
However, the deputy minister said that many pupils had requested a rewrite.
“We want to go back to court for particular issues. It’s not only for the department, it is also for pupils who want to go to universities and we don’t want them to carry the stigma,” said Mhaule.
Mweli said they felt that the court had not been able to fully engage with all the answering documents due to the short period of time it had had to make a decision.
Following the end of the matric exams this week, he said the marking of exam papers had started in Mpumalanga where some suspicious marks, not in keeping with exam trends, had been discovered.
He said that for irregularities of the magnitude of the Maths and Physics leaks, investigative marking and statistical analysis comparison was not always useful.
“It’s most useful in group copying, but we are still going to use this (approach) during marking,” said Mweli.
With regard to the Covid-19 second wave, Motshekga said the department had not yet discussed the matter, however, the pandemic had been factored into next year’s curriculum.
Dr Rufus Poliah, the chief director for Public Examinations and Assessments, said that except for the leaked exam papers, the matric exams had proceeded as planned.
He said every candidate who registered for the exams was able to write, including 715 pupils who tested positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Motshekga said for the 2021 school year, 300 000 new pupils would be enrolled into the system.
In KwaZulu-Natal, 150 000 had been enrolled into Grade 1 and 26 500 had not yet been placed, while 154 472 had been placed in Grade 8.
The minister said a new policy would come into effect next year to progress Grade 1 pupils as the repetition rate was too high.
“At this early stage supporting pupils would improve performance, rather than repetition,” Motshekga said.
The Mercury