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The ball’s now in Umalusi’s court on credibility of 2020 matric exams: DBE
The Department of Education (DBE) says it will revert to its initial plan following the cancellation of the planned rewrite of the leaked matric examination papers.
Spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga says the quality assurance agency, Umalusi, will now have to decide, as per normal procedure, on the credibility of the 2020 matric results.
The move followed Friday’s court ruling, which set the DBE’s rewrite decision aside.
The department says while it plans on challenging certain aspects of the judgment, it will proceed with its management plan, which includes investigative marking.
“And in terms of the management plan, on the 15th of February they (Umalusi) will be making a public announcement on whether they approve the results for release to the candidates or not. So we will wait for that but for now, we will do what we need to do.”
#matricrewrite#MatricExams | Umalusi has taken note of the court judgment on the rewrite of Mathematics Paper 2 and Physical Sciences Paper 2
— Mthimkhulu, Mashwabada, Mashiya amahle (@NeoMotloung_) December 11, 2020
“We are considering all options because we worry about the credibility and the integrity of the examinations. Under normal circumstances when something like this happens, we look at the extent of the problem – how big is it – we localise it in a certain place and deal with it there. In this case, we failed to do that because we don’t know how far the paper went and how many people accessed it,” adds Mhlanga.
He says they will be reviewing this year’s situation and find ways to prevent it from happening again.
Mhlanga says while they probably need to improve their vetting system – they might also be looking at an online examination system for matriculants.
Mhlanga’s full interview on SA Today below:
Teachers’ union, SADTU, has urged Umalusi to declare the exams credible.
