Editorial
It have been fair to punish hundreds of thousands of pupils because of the actions of a few hundred
What good is a matric certificate if it's not worth the paper it's written on?
From this point of view, it is easy to understand the Basic Education Department's need to ensure the integrity of the matric exams is protected, and its push to have the leaked maths 2 and physical science 2 exams rewritten.
But on the other hand, would it have been fair to punish hundreds of thousands of pupils because of the actions of a few hundred? A total of 195 pupils (possibly 199 as investigations continue) out of 339 000 are known to have had the maths paper in advance, and 60 out of 282 000 in the case of the physics paper.
Judge Norman Davis did not think so and ordered the department to cancel the rewrites, and that the scripts of those who had not cheated be marked as they ordinarily would have been.
He rightly labelled as careless the department's dismissal of the prejudices to be suffered by pupils as mere “inconvenience” or “smokescreen”.
As outlined in Thursday's hearing, many pupils had handed in their textbooks on writing their papers and would not have had access to this vital material in preparing for the rewrites. In addition, as is tradition, many had destroyed their own notes as part of celebrating the end of those subjects.
And many had returned to their homes, which could be far from their schools.
For the department to dismiss these concerns as inconvenient was callous in the extreme.
Rather, it should look at its handling of the leaks as they occurred and examine whether it took the best course in each case.
The department was notified of leaks hours before the papers were written, giving it ample time to either call off the exams, or call in the back-up paper in each instance.
The unsavoury incident also clearly calls for the department to audit its security measures around matric question papers.
Yesterday's judgment hopefully marks the end of what had already been a traumatic, unstable academic year for the matric class of 2020.