Amid allegations of examination fraud, Mpumalanga’s matric results are to be withheld when those of the rest of the country are announced next Wednesday, examination controlling body Umalusi said on Friday.
Mpumalanga matric candidates may only know their results by the second week of next year.
”The executive committee of Umalusi’s council has decided that the results of the 2004 senior certificate assessments in Mpumalanga province are to be withheld pending further investigations,” the body said in a statement.
”The committee hopes to have sufficient clarity on the matter to make an announcement in the second week of January.”
Umalusi said it would ask the provincial education department for a full report on the allegations. The council would also ”formally approach the SA Police Service in the province for assistance”.
”The council wants to stress that its latest decision should not be interpreted as a judgement on the issue,” the statement said.
”Its aim is to ensure that, when the results are finally released, all uncertainties have been dispelled”.
The council said it was aware of the constraints its decision could impose on pupils and would do its best to complete the probe as soon as possible.
The results of the other eight provinces have already been approved and were due to be announced by Education Minster Naledi Pandor next week.
Police on Thursday seized all the province’s examination scripts as part of its investigation — sparked by a report the previous day by an exam marker.
The scripts have been closed off in a store at the education department’s Middelburg offices.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Izak van Zyl said investigators were busy sifting through the documents.
He did not expect the probe to be concluded before the second week of January as many experts from Umalusi due to assist in the investigation were currently on leave.
The probe would cover examinations written in the subjects of English (first language), physics, chemistry, agricultural science, business economics, geography and tourism.
Pupils at six schools were under suspicion — two in Nelspruit and one each in White River, Morgenzon, Groblersdal and Middelburg.
Hundreds of pupils could be involved, Van Zyl said.
The investigation so far has unearthed ”many irregularities”, including the discovery of crib notes, he added.
”We have definitely established a prima facie case.”
Police were investigating the possibility that senior staff from the provincial education department and teachers may have been involved.
Cheating pupils could also face criminal charges.
”We have sympathy with pupils but the interests of justice demand of us to investigate this case,” Van Zyl said. ”The hardship suffered by innocent pupils will be of a short-term nature. We will do everything we can to conclude this matter as speedily as possible so that they can get on with their lives.”
Provincial education spokesperson Thomas Msiza said Umalusi had requested more information from the department and given notice that it required more time for the investigation.
Apart from the subjects under investigation, Umalusi has also asked the department for 10 scripts in each of a variety of other subjects for spot checks.
The department was itself not involved in the probe as the alleged irregularities occurred under its processes, Msiza said.
He raised questions about the motives of the marker who reported the matter to the police, asking why she had waited so long.
Marking of the matric examinations took place between December 1 and 7.
”Why would one keep quiet for so long unless there is an agenda?”
Msiza was adamant that no pupils could have had access to memoranda containing examination answers beforehand, saying no evidence to that effect has yet been uncovered.
He confirmed that the department had been aware of suspected irregularities in up to 75 scripts from one Nelspruit school. These had been brought under Umalusi’s attention and were to have been scrutinised by a departmental ”irregularities committee”. But before that could happen, the criminal investigation had already
been launched, he said.
In 1998, the Mpumalanga matric examinations also came under the spotlight when it transpired that the province’s pass rate had been artificially escalated by 20%. – Sapa