Matric exam leaks have resulted in large- scale reshuffling within the Gauteng Department of Education, report Joshua Amupadhi, Stuart Hess and David Shapshak
SECURITY for the matric exams was so lax and the loopholes so many that the Gauteng Department of Education this week replaced many of the 700 officials of its examinations unit.
This, it is hoped, will halt any more of the leaks which have cast a pall over the first non-racial examinations.
Said Subethri Naidoo, representative for Gauteng Education MEC Mary Metcalfe: “We are in such a state of not knowing where the leaks occurred that we even had to replace some management staff and get more senior people to deal with issues such as packaging.
“We are not saying all of them were involved, but we couldn’t take the risk of keeping them there.”
She would not give the exact number of staff involved, but added that most were in the printing and packaging sections. These staff members had been moved to other sections.
The department’s drastic move came as the leaks triggered widespread public anxiety. Four inquiries have been launched: an investigation by Public Protector Selby Baqwa, an internal education department probe, a commission of inquiry appointed by Metcalfe, and an investigation by the police.
While the department and police say they are close to a breakthrough, Naidoo admitted that whatever evidence they have is circumstantial and perpetrators could escape on technicalities.
The leaks were the work of crime syndicates and people acting alone, fuelled by inexperienced staff and “a few old guard” set on discrediting the department, she said. The replacement did not discriminate between the old and new bureaucrats.
She said fewer people than before were now involved in the new security arrangements.
A senior official who did want to be named said that after the leak of the accountancy paper was discovered the department found English and Afrikaans versions stapled together. This showed internal complicity, said the source, because if the rules had been followed exam papers in the two languages would have been handled by separate officials.
It has so far been confirmed that the accountancy paper, which should have been written last week, was stolen and sold for up to R2 000. The exam has been postponed to November 27. Police say rumours that an algebra questionnaire was on the Internet have not been substantiated.
Some pupils in Laudium in Pretoria and Lenasia in Johannesburg said sets of papers for all subjects were going for R35 000. But the theft of exam papers is “by no means new”, Naidoo said. And unlike in the past the new department was doing something to stop the leaks, which had become “chronic” in the education system over the years.
Role players in education circles called for tougher action. South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) representative Kate Skinner said they have insisted that all remaining question papers be redrafted.
Naidoo would not say whether this would be done, but confirmed that “a number” of papers had already been changed.
Soweto’s Orlando High School principal, George Mchunu, said officials knew leakages would occur because the examinations were being held on such a large scale. “There were quite a few instances of leaks in the old department of education and training and this department should have made provisions to counter the possibility of leaks,” he said.
Parktown Boys’ High principal Tom Clarke said reports that the current matric exams carried no weight were giving pupils and parents the wrong perception about the standard of the exam.
“Instead of questioning the standard of the exam we should rather attack the administration for their slackness and incompetence,” he said.