Durban - Teachers who confess to taking part in the matric “group copying” scandal should not be given full indemnity, the DA has said.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) confirmed last week it would be extending an “olive branch” to teachers who came forward and confessed their part in the matric cheating scandal that had seven provinces implicated in “group copying”.
This was after the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union had called for teachers and pupils who confessed to be given a second chance.
DBE spokesman, Elijah Mhlanga, told Business Day they had agreed to extend an “olive branch” to teachers who confessed.
“The teachers and students who come forward and confess to the department about their wrongdoing will be given a second chance.
“Therefore pupils would be allowed to rewrite the subjects in which they were implicated. The teachers who come forward would also be given lenient penalties or amnesty,” he said.
Mhlanga said pupils who were to appear before the hearings would be allowed legal representation and said letters were being sent to each pupil to appear before the panel.
KwaZulu-Natal was the biggest culprit, with 39 schools fingered in the cheating that was uncovered by exams quality assurer Umalusi.
Eleven schools in KZN have since been cleared, with the figure now standing at 28 schools. Pupils from the affected schools have not received their results, but they are being allowed to register for the supplementary exams in the event they are cleared.
Annette Lovemore, DA MP and party spokeswoman on education, said the seriousness of the offence committed demanded disciplinary action be taken against implicated teachers.
She said she would write to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to “implore her to apply the law, and to ensure that cheating teachers are disciplined.
“Given the seriousness of the offence, teachers found guilty of assisting matric students to cheat should not be offered amnesty, as the Education Department is currently intending to do. Rather, disciplinary action should be instituted and allowed to run its course,” she said.
Lovemore said it was incorrect to grant full indemnity for confessions because the teachers had shown “contempt for the quality of education their pupils received, and disdain for the consequences that might be suffered by the pupils involved.
“Every one of the teachers involved in committing fraud, and who caused their pupils to commit fraud, by presenting exam answers that were supposed to be compiled by their pupils, should be held accountable,” she said.
The allegations were “serious misconduct” and she said the Employment of Educators Act called for dismissal or disciplinary action for such transgressions.
“The department could and should institute disciplinary procedures against such teachers and report them to the South African Council for Educators.
“The DA does not believe that Minister Motshekga is within her legal rights in offering amnesty. In addition, she is setting a very dangerous precedent,” she said.
Mhlanga said the hearings into the “group copying” scandal would begin next week and conclude on March 16.
“The provinces will convene a meeting of the Provincial Examinations Irregularities Committee (PEIC) by 19 March, where a full report on the hearings will be presented to the PEIC. All these hearings will be conducted by the provincial departments of education,” he said.
Mhlanga said candidates under investigation by the department were allowed to register and write supplementary examinations pending the inquiry’s outcome.
“It needs to be noted that this is a once off dispensation given by the minister and therefore does not apply to other irregularities identified in the 2014 NSC examinations that have been dealt with in accordance with the Regulations on the Conduct, Administration and Management of the NSC Examinations,” Mhlanga said.
Meanwhile, KZN Department of Education spokesman, Muzi Mahlambi, said 31 188 candidates had registered to sit in the supplementary exams which began on Monday and will be written until March 24.
Mhlanga said 85 000 candidates around the country would sit for the examinations, and added that schools implicated in the “group copying” scandal would not be allowed to administer the exams.
Daily News