Revelations of cheating and the theft of exam papers is casting a pall over end-of-year exams at South Africa’s largest distance learning technikon, Technikon South Africa.
The integrity of the technikon’s 2002 exams, which started on Monday October 14, is severely compromised following the arrest last week of an official accused of stealing and selling examination papers at the 21-year-old institution, which has 55 000 students countrywide.
At the centre of the scandal is Khamuzi Mulaudzi, a 30-year-old official at the technikon’s asset management services division, who was arrested last Friday by the Florida police. Mulaudzi’s department does not deal with examination papers, raising suspicions that he was aided by some officials in the technikon’s examination department.
The arrest came a day after a third-year marketing student was detained on similar charges.
Mulaudzi appeared in court on the day of his arrest and was released on R2 500 bail. The student remains in custody.
Mulaudzi and the student will both appear in the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court on November 15 — the day the technikon’s examination ends.
The state alleges that Mulaudzi stole a marketing exam paper for third-year students and an advert- ising and sales paper for first-year students.
He is also being investigated for the theft of other exam papers, including the “law for marketers” paper. He allegedly sold the papers for R600 each to students, who then resold them.
The marketing paper in question is a major for students studying for the technikon’s National Diploma in Marketing.
The Mail & Guardian has confirmed that the marketing paper was written this week on Monday, despite the alleged leak.
It is not clear how many of the students who wrote the marketing exam bought the paper. Technikon SA spokesperson Laura Anne Coetzee confirmed that police are investigating the theft of exam papers but refused to divulge further details.
Coetzee said the technikon believes, however, that the leak was “isolated”.
But Technikon SA officials, who this week spoke to the M&G on condition of anonymity, said the arrested student has confessed to reselling the stolen exam papers to about 20 students.
Coetzee refused to discuss the allegations, saying the matter was sub judice. Technikon SA officials, however, expressed fears that the exam scandal would tarnish the institution’s image.
Technikon SA is widely respected as the “premier provider of career-based tertiary distance education”. Exam cheating has affected matric examinations in the past, but rarely occurs at tertiary institutions.
The exam scandal at Technikon SA raises questions about the internal controls at the institution. Exam papers at tertiary institutions are tightly guarded and sealed to prevent leaks — and to detect whether any have occurred.
It is not clear at this stage how anyone could have managed to steal the papers. Coetzee refused to broach the matter, saying only that “measures were immediately put in place after the incident”.
Coetzee declined to divulge what measures were put in place, saying revealing the details would jeopardise “the integrity of the measures”.
She said the technikon’s audit department was monitoring “all risk factors of processes in the institution”. The technikon’s council is chaired by politician-turned-businessman Matthews Phosa.
Last month Phosa announced the appointment of Dr Neo Mathabe as the institution’s new vice-chancellor to replace AIH Buitendacht.
Mathabe, the first black and female vice-chancellor of the Florida-based institution, is set to be inaugurated on November 15 at Gallagher Estate in Midrand. One of Mathabe’s key challenges would be overseeing the technikon’s proposed merger with the University of South Africa and Vista’s distance learning arm, Vudec.