Education Department: Integrity of 2020 Matric Exams Not Compromised

- The 2020 Matric Final Exams were plagued by multiple leaks of examination papers

- Despite this, the Department of Education insists that the integrity of the papers were not compromised

- Declining to reveal the full extent of the spread of the papers, the Department is satisfied with probes into the matter

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The Department of Basic Education has addressed the matter of the leaked 2020 Matric Final Exam papers.

Speaking during a media briefing on Sunday ahead of schools reopening, Hugh Amoore, chairperson of the National Investigations Task Team commented on the ordeal.

The Department is adamant that the exams as a whole were not compromised despite the breach in security.

While insisting that the overall integrity of the Physical Sciences 2 and Mathematics 2 papers were not compromised, the department says that the full extent of the leak may never be uncovered.

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The difficulties in determining the exact spread of the leak is due to the fact that WhatsApp was used to distribute the papers.

Advocate Luvuyo Bono, chairperson of the National Examinations Irregularities Committee noted that candidates showed that the had done work individually.

Amoore admitted that the Department cannot claim to have uncovered every WhatsApp group, but signalled his confidence that the majority had indeed been found.

The Physical Sciences Paper 2 leak was found to have reached 62 matric students with the majority being in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces.

Meanwhile, Briefly.co.za reported that the Department of Basic Education has lost many educators as the nation continues to battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking on Sunday afternoon ahead of schools opening on Monday for the first time this year, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga told the media that over 1 100 have died due to the virus.

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Motshekga says that the Department has opted to phase in schools reopening over the course of the past 3 weeks.

Teachers and management staff have been in attendance for the past two weeks, hard at work preparing to welcome students back to the classroom.

Motshekga revealed that a staggering 1 169 teachers have passed away between December to February.

From 12 February onwards, the number of educators who have passed away from Covid-19 stands at 159 fatalities. The number of non-educators that work in the sector that passed away in between December and January currently stands at 69.

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Source: Briefly News