Examination controlling body Umalusi has agreed to speed up its probe into claims of widespread fraud committed by Mpumalanga matriculants in a bid to hasten the release of pupils’ results, the provincial education department said on Wednesday.
Education MEC Siphosezwe Masango said he spoke to Umalusi chief executive officer Peliwe Lolwana on Tuesday ”to impress upon them that we cannot wait until January 14 to announce our Grade 12 results”.
”Umalusi has responded positively and indicated that they will complete the investigation by January 7,” he said in a statement.
Lolwana could not be reached for confirmation.
The National Professionals Teachers’ Association of SA (Naptosa) also called for a speedy probe.
Naptosa president Dave Balt said this should be made to ”protect the thousands of innocent candidates who have been disadvantaged through the indiscretions of a few”.
The investigation centred on allegations of fraud involving at least 2000 papers written in this year’s examinations in the province.
”Naptosa agrees that the strongest possible action must be taken against anyone involved in this disgraceful incident,” said Balt.
Asked when the results would be released, departmental spokesman Thomas Msiza said this would depend on talks to be held with Umalusi on the completion of the investigation.
Police, meanwhile, were continuing their criminal probe into allegations of fraud involving at least 2000 papers written in this year’s matric year-end examinations.
Spokesman Superintendent Izak van Zyl said the police leg of the probe was not expected to be completed before mid-January. But this need not necessarily influence the release of the provincial Grade 12 results -which was a decision solely in the domain of the education department and Umalusi.
Investigators were taking statements from 13 possible witnesses, and information was still streaming in from pupils, examination markers, departmental officials and teachers, Van Zyl said.
On Tuesday he said it was ”quite possible” that senior education department staff might be arrested. Pupils involved in the alleged fraud could also face criminal charges.
Last Thursday, provincial police seized every single examination script written by this year’s Mpumalanga matrics as part of the investigation -prompted by a report the previous day by an exam marker of suspected irregularities.
This led Umalusi to announce that the province’s matric results would be withheld until at least the second week in January.
The rest of the country’s results were announced earlier on Wednesday.
The police investigation covered examinations written in the subjects of English, physics, chemistry, agricultural science, business economics, geography, tourism, mathematics, Afrikaans (second language), biology, history, accounting and isiZulu (first language).
Pupils at six schools were under suspicion — two in Nelspruit and one each in White River, Morgenzon, Groblersdal and Middelburg. Hundreds of pupils were feared to have been involved.
Van Zyl said the probe focused on claims that memoranda containing answers to the questionnaires had been made available — possibly sold –to pupils.
A prima facie case had already been established, he said.
Masango said on Wednesday the ”whole saga” began at the Nelspruit marking centre where a marker allegedly detected irregularities in more than 40 examination scripts. It allegedly involved pupils erasing an answer and replacing it with the correct one — all of them the same.
Masango said the chief marker filed a written report as required, but the one who spotted the alleged fraud was not satisfied. Instead of approaching the examination centre manager or the department, the marker waited until the process of marking and standardisation was complete before reporting to the police, he added.
After the police report, the department started an internal probe and confirmed irregularities in the Physical Science examination at a White River private school.
As the investigation was underway, Umalusi informed the department that more allegations of irregularities had been reported to the police, the statement said.
”The intervention of the MEC in the saga was in view of the decision of Umalusi to complete the investigation … on January 14,” Masango said.
”As a result of the MEC’s intervention, the province is likely to receive the Grade 12 results earlier than January 14.”
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