According to a report by The Mercury an adult Matric cheating scam in KwaZulu-Natal has come to light.
It is believed the scam has forced exam quality oversight body Umalusi to declare the results of exams from 153 centres, where papers were written and collected, invalid.
An investigation by Umalusu and the basic education department uncovered ‘gross irregularities’. It is believed the invigilators had colluded with the cheaters in subjects including physics, accounting, maths and history during the adult Matric exams held in May, which were written by more than 46 000 candidates.
The exams are also referred to as the ‘old Matric’, the Senior Certificate which is based on the old curriculu,and is not written by full-time pupils.
The results from these exams were withheld until the conclusion of the investigation.
The scam was prevalent at writing centres in all 12 education districts in KZN. The candidates will no have to rewrite the papers.
The scam:
According to the report, investigators found crib notes, some papers submitted by a single person had different handwriting for different subjects, and two sets of answer papers for the same subject bearing the same exam number but with different handwriting. The Department of Education refers to this as “ghost writing”.
The registered candidate writes the paper in the exam room but, at the same time, a second individual, hired by the registered candidate, also produces an answer script. The answer script of the hired writer replaces that of the registered candidate. However, the invigilator – who is in on the scam – submits both scripts for marking.
The KZN Education Department plans to deregister all adult matric exam centres, and will be replacing invigilators who are not permanent with district and school officials.
