Durban – Education Minister Angie Motshekga wants disciplinary action instituted against DA MP Gavin Davis because of what she has labelled his “unethical conduct” in trying to obtain information on the adjustments of the 2016 matric marks.
Davis, however, said on Tuesday that he was exercising his constitutional duties.
Motshekga on Monday penned a letter to DA chief whip John Steenhuisen calling for action to be taken against Davis because at a confidential national standardisation meeting he had refused to sign a confidentiality agreement and had taken pictures.
He had also taken information on the raw marks home and made it public and, she says, flouted official protocol by trying to solicit information from officials.
But Davis said on Tuesday he was not aware of any “official protocol”.
He said it was his constitutional duty to interrogate matters of this nature and he could question whoever he wanted.
“And in respect of not signing the confidentiality agreement, my conscience is clean,” he said.
Davis also said he had tried to get answers as to why the marks were adjusted from the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi).
But the council had not been forthcoming, he said, so he had submitted an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act for “key documents”.
“There may very well be good answers to all the questions we have asked regarding standardisation but we need to hear these explanations,” Davis said.
Upward adjustments were effected in 28 of the 58 subjects in last year’s matric exams.
Matric marks are standardised by Umalusi and the Department of Basic Education to create consistency among the classes of different years.
But with so many upward adjustments last year, some have questioned if challenges experienced by candidates in the exams were not because the exams were difficult, but because they (candidates) were weak.
Umalusi issued a statement responding to an open letter written to it by Davis on December 30 and saying he was provided with reasons as to why it was not prudent to discuss standardisation via email.
It said the process was complex and it was prepared to conduct a workshop for the portfolio committee on basic education and had communicated such to Davis.
Professor Wayne Hugo, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s school of education and development, said there were good reasons for keeping raw marks confidential.
There had to be an interrogation of the marks and a process of adjusting them without the public becoming alarmed about them.
This was acceptable practice across the world, he explained.