The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has confirmed a video circulating on social media, claiming a Grade 12 learner was caught cheating during the final exams, is fake.
The video was originally posted on TikTok on Monday as Grade 12 learners across the country started their exams.
In the 62-second video, a woman claims she had been invigilating the matric exams English paper 3 and a learner was allegedly found cheating and writing his essay with AI on his cell phone. The video has over 144,000 likes, nearly 30,000 shares, and over 5,200 comments.
“Good day, this is Mrs August, the Principal of the Golden Gates High School. We found a learner writing English paper 3 using AI to generate his essay topic. We obviously had to generate the procedure. This is an irregularity and this child now won’t be able to write matric exams for the next three years,” the alleged Mrs August said.
She went further stating that this would infringe on the school’s 100% pass rate.
The video has since been removed from TikTok.
This video has caused anxiety among fellow Grade 12 learners and the WCED called this out as fake news.
“The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is aware of a video circulating that alleges that a learner at ‘Golden Gates High School’ was caught cheating in their matric exam. No school of this name exists in the Western Cape, and the video is entirely fake. Despite subsequent videos explaining that it is some type of parody, the damage has already been done,” Education MEC David Maynier said.
He said this deliberate spread of fake news anxiety among the class of 2024.
“Deliberate fake news of this kind is extremely damaging, as it falsely creates doubt in the integrity of the exam process, and adds to the anxiety of our matrics at a time when they need to focus on their exams," he said.
"We appeal to everyone in the Western Cape to avoid posting or sharing fake news regarding the exams. It wastes officials’ time when they need to be focused on the important task of administering the exams, and it causes unnecessary panic among learners and parents,” Maynier said.
He said the department’s priority during the exam period must be the well-being of learners so that they are in the best possible head space when they write each exam.
“It is the responsibility of each one of us, especially adults, to support our matrics in the Western Cape,” Maynier said.
Nationally, there are 732,448 full-time candidates enrolled for NSC examinations and 136,195 part-time candidates who are registered to sit for various subjects this year.
Should a learner be caught cheating, the candidate’s results could be nullified and they could even be barred from writing one to three subsequent examinations, delaying their post-school employment or education. And if a candidate is found to be involved in the leakage of any examination question paper, they could even face criminal prosecution.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
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