Pretoria - The leaking of a matric exam paper has raised questions about the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) tighter security measures.
The department found out that the maths paper 2 had been leaked in Giyani, Limpopo, after Grade 12s wrote the exam on Monday.
Prior to the start of the exams, the DBE said provincial education departments had audited all exam centres and that extra care would be given to centres classified as high risk as well as independent centres.
The department’s spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said because there had never been a leak in the area before, the Mopani district was not placed among the high-risk centres.
This is the second year in a row that a question paper had been leaked in Limpopo. Last year, two matric life sciences papers were leaked in the Vhembe district of the province.
Learners were caught in possession of the question papers an hour before they were to be written.
After further investigations, the department found that the leak had spread to Mpumalanga and Gauteng. Candidates had used WhatsApp to forward each other the exam papers.
More than 17 000 candidates had to rewrite the examinations.
In Giyani this week, the department had to call in the Hawks to investigate how candidates got hold of the paper and find out the extent of the leak.
Mhlanga said: “We are going to quarantine all the scripts of the schools in the area to establish if there are any patterns.
“A team from the DBE and province are working together with law enforcement to get to the bottom of this matter so that we can take appropriate action.”
Mhlanga said the department was still confident that they would be able to offer exams that were fair. “The department would like to assure learners, parents and other stakeholders that it is has taken extraordinary measures to safeguard the integrity of these exams.”
Limpopo has the third highest number of registered matric candidates at 110 557, just behind KwaZulu-Natal with 170 631 and Gauteng at 112 111 candidates.
Mhlanga said of the leak in Giyani: “We have an idea where the leak comes from and we are working with the Hawks to confirm this.”
The portfolio committee on basic education said it supported the department’s approach in dealing with the leak. Committee chairperson Nomalungelo Gina said: “We support DBE’s approach to report it to law enforcement.”
tebogo.monama@inl.co.za
Pretoria News