Johannesburg - A total of 85 000 people have registered to sit for the supplementary examinations, the department of basic education said on Wednesday.
The centres implicated in the group copying scandal in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal would not be allowed to administer the supplementary exams, department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said in a statement.
This was based on agreement between monitoring body Umalusi and the department.
“In instances where there was group copying 1/8national and provincial departments 3/8 will take over the management of the examinations.”
The supplementary exams would be written in 6103 centres around the country, Mhlanga said.
The department announced earlier in the week that pupils involved in the copying scandal in both provinces had been granted concessions to write. They could write supplementary exams in the subjects on which they were accused of copying.
Individual hearings with each of the pupils implicated would begin on February 24 and end on March 16, Mhlanga said.
“This will allow for the evidence with regard to each subject, to be presented to the individual learner, and for the learner to respond to the charge of copying that will be presented.
“Learners will be allowed legal representation,” he said.
The hearings would be conducted by the provincial department, under the oversight of the national department and would be monitored by Umalusi, Mhlanga said.
In December, monitoring body Umalusi said group copying was found at 19 Eastern Cape exam centres and 39 in KwaZulu-Natal.
Asked how the irregularities were discovered, Umalusi CEO Mafu Rakometsi said pupils provided the same answers.
“These problems were detected at the marking centres... The students are providing the same answers, the same right answers, the same wrong answers,” Rakometsi said at the time.
“It is clear that there is sharing of notes.”
Sapa