A team comprising independent experts will be set up to investigate claims of cheating in last year’s Mpumalanga matric exams, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Thursday.
The group will also include Department of Education officials, she told reporters in Pretoria.
The team’s probe will complement a separate ongoing police investigation into the allegations.
Pandor said she will discuss the establishment of the team with Mpumalanga’s education minister as soon as possible.
The move, she said, is ”to ensure we send a clear message that we are taking such practices very seriously”.
Pandor also announced that the national matric pass rate for 2004, initially put at 71,4%, has been adjusted downwards to 70,7%.
The initial figure had excluded the results of Mpumalanga, withheld for more than three weeks because of the cheating allegations. — Sapa