Class of 2020: Union, dept butting heads over matric paper rewrites

The basic education department is unfazed by the potential legal bid to halt the national rewrite of two leaked matric examination papers, saying the rewrite was crucial to protect the integrity of the examinations.

Themba Daniel Shikwambana, 31, an employee of a printing company contracted to print 2020 matric question papers, was arrested in connection with the leaks and remanded in custody last week.

The SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) confirmed it would approach the High Court in Pretoria in a bid to get an urgent interdict to stop the national rewrite of mathematics paper 2 on 15 December, and physical science on 17 December.

Sadtu said the department’s decision was irrational, was not based on sound evidence and could be traumatic for pupils already set back by the Covid-19 lockdown.

“We need evidence that the credibility of the two papers has been compromised.

“There is no evidence of how wide the paper spread to how many pupils and you can only do that after marking. You then isolate and withhold their results so they explain,” Mugwena Maluleke, general secretary, said yesterday.

He said the department should at least limit the rewrite to the areas where the leak occurred, instead of more than 400 00 pupils having to rewrite because just over 100 might have seen the paper.

He said the union was going to court not only because the rewrite was problematic, but also to prevent disruptions of examinations.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga, said the department had taken a painful decision
to rescue the matric examinations from possible disaster if Umalusi, the examination quality assurance body, rejected the results due to doubt about the credibility of the exams.

Education expert professor Mary Metcalfe said the material had been spread electronically and therefore it was not easy to find out who the paper was leaked to.

“My instinct is to trust the expertise of Umalusi and the department, that in their assessment, to maintain the integrity of the examinations, that pupils will have to rewrite.”

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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