Xolani Koyana
THOUSANDS of completed Annual National Assessments exam scripts are being withheld by exam moderator Konani Training and Development Institute due to a dispute between the company and the Department of Basic Education over a R29 million contract.
The Johannesburg-based company, Konani, was awarded the multimillion-rand contract to facilitate the assessments and verify the results but the department cancelled the contract at the eleventh hour.
The verification process – which includes sampling test papers from each province – was meant to begin this week but has now left the department scrambling to secure a new moderator.
The department cancelled its contract with Konani while the exams were under way after it allegedly discovered that “false declarations” had been made by the company in its tender documents.
Konani has denied this.
On the same day the department cancelled the contract, a circular was sent to some schools informing them that the contract had been cancelled and that the exam scripts would not be handed over to Konani officials.
But, says Konani, at this stage it had already collected 60 percent of the sample scripts, which is presently in its possession. It is now refusing to hand over the scripts to the department until it is paid the money it says it is due.
In a statement earlier this month the department said more than 6.8 million pupils in grades 1 to 6 and Grade 9 would write the assessments, which test literacy and numeracy levels, from September 16.
“How are they going to give the report to the minister (Angie Motshekga) when they don’t have the scripts? Until the department pays the 2 000 guys we had on the ground we won’t release the scripts. We had done 80 to 90 percent of the work and the department must pay up,” said Konani Group owner Simon Tshikalange, adding that they would approach the High Court to compel the department to pay.
He said they had performed the bulk of the task before the department had decided to pull the plug. Tshikalange in turn hit out at the department, saying the assessments had been poorly planned and that Konani officials had only been given the writing material on September 13 – three days before the assessments were due to start. The question papers had to be delivered to all provinces.
He said they hired courier companies to deliver the material to the provinces and employed 2 000 field workers to deliver the papers to schools. Invigilators were hired to monitor the exams and a building had been leased in Pretoria where the verification of the marks could be done by Konani markers, he said.
Tshikalange said the process had been going well until September 18 when some of his employees who were meant to collect the scripts from schools were informed by educators that they were not allowed to hand over the scripts to Konani.
Konani was first awarded the multimillion-rand contract last month. Asked about the department’s claims that it had fraudulently represented itself, Tshikalange said the allegations were untrue. Konani was presently in a legal battle with the Gauteng Education Department over a tender relating to a youth learnership programme and had not yet been found guilty.
On Sunday, national education spokesman Elijah Mahlangu said the contract had been cancelled because Konani had “lied” about never having had a previous contract cancelled.
Mahlangu said the department had subsequently discovered that Konani had in fact previously had a contract terminated by the Gauteng Education department earlier this year.
“We immediately terminated their contract because they lied on an official document. That is fraud,” Mahlanga said, adding the department would be lodging a complaint of fraud against the company with the police this week.
He said it was the first time that the national department had used the services of the company and the department was yet to transfer any of the R29m to Konani. Mahlanga said another contractor had been chosen on Friday and its appointment would be finalised this week.
“We are slightly late, but we will be able to manage,” Mahlanga said.
He would not comment on Konani’s stance in relation to withholding exam scripts, saying instead that the matter was being handled by the department’s legal team.
Western Cape Education Department spokesman Paddy Attwell said the national department had asked them to assist with monitoring verification assessments.
He said the issue had not affected all schools but that the national department based verification on a sample of schools in each province.
“In our case, the sample is 246 of about 1 450 schools that participated in the ANAs,” said Attwell.
But education expert Graeme Bloch said it was important that the marks be verified independently to ensure credibility. “We have to be happy knowing that the results are credible. If they are not verified, then |that would be a problem.”