Durban - Three of the high schools accused of cheating in last year’s matric exams were high achievers in the 2013 exam but five years earlier had poor results, according to provincial education department statistics.
This has emerged after eight KZN schools (among the 39 exam centres accused of cheating) were named in a Sunday paper.
In the Eastern Cape, 19 exam centres are under suspicion and Umalusi spokesman Lucky Ditaunyane has confirmed reports of cheating in six Gauteng centres, two in Mpumalanga and one each in the Western Cape, North West and the Northern Cape.
The names of the affected schools in KZN could not be independently confirmed. But by looking at their results in 2013, four had pass rates of between 96% and 86.8%. The rest of the schools achieved 60% or less.
A comparison of the top-performing schools’ pass rates since 2008 showed that all had poor performances in 2008, with either gradual and sharp improvements in the subsequent years.
One performed poorly in 2008 and 2009, achieving pass rates below 30%. In 2010 its performance steadily improved to 42%, and then went above 70% in the following years.
A second one also performed poorly in 2008, achieving a pass rate of 20% - but the following year, this rose dramatically to 91% and stayed in the 90s until a dip to 59.7% in 2012.
A third achieved a pass rate of 23% in 2008 which more than doubled to 62% in 2009. The school’s pass rate stayed above 70% for the subsequent years with its highest rate, 96%, recorded in 2011.
A fourth school had mixed results over the years with a recorded pass of 60% in 2008, zero in 2009 and 5% in 2010. The school’s pass rate rose to 78% in 2011 and increased to above 80% the following year.
On Sunday, the KZN Parents Association’s Vee Gani said cheating affected the credibility of the exam process and was unfair to other pupils.
Gani said teachers who were found to have been complicit in the cheating should be fired.
Anthony Pierce, of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa, said the cheating allegations were a “dark cloud over the release of the results”. He suggested that the criteria used to appoint invigilators be addressed.
Natu’s Allen Thompson said the cheating allegations could affect KZN pupils when they applied at tertiary institutions.
Professor Renuka Vithal, the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s deputy vice-chancellor of teaching and learning, said action needed to be taken against those involved. “It is a high-stakes examination because it directly affects what opportunities are available for pupils,” she said.
Education spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said the scandal had been blown out of proportion and did not involve 39 centres. Affected pupils and teachers would be interviewed by investigators
.
He also said the affected pupils would get their results except for subjects under investigation, which were maths, business studies and economics.
The Mercury