Any staff found to have been involved in cheating in last year’s Mpumalanga matric examinations will be punished appropriately, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Friday.
”Minister Pandor is committed to ensuring that where criminal conduct and fraud is committed, the full might of the law is applied,” her ministry said in a statement.
”Those who bring the examination system into disrepute through fraudulent conduct and, by so doing, threaten the future of learners, will be brought to justice.”
Pandor also said those schools implicated in the irregularities will have to be re-accredited as examination centres.
Examination quality-controlling body Umalusi announced on Thursday that it has found evidence of cheating at 10 Mpumalanga schools. It directed that the matric marks of more than 2 300 pupils be withheld when the provincial results are released on Saturday.
Umalusi’s provisional investigation found irregularities in exams in 12 subjects — business economics, economics, mathematics, physical science, history, agricultural science, biology, geography, physiology, hospitality studies, compu-typing and Isizulu.
It could not say how many scripts were affected.
Investigators found evidence of common answers at some examination centres and of similar changes made to answers by groups of students. — Sapa