Johannesburg - Learners suspected of cheating in the 2020 matric exams are in for a rough ride as education authorities have resolved to withhold their results.
The exams were marred by the leaking of Maths paper 2 and Physical Science paper 2.
Professor John Volmink, chairperson of quality assurer Umalusi’s executive committee, said on Monday that action would be taken against the implicated learners, and they would not receive their results pending the investigation by the Department of Basic Education (DBE).
Volmink said: “In respect of the generally identified irregularities, the DBE is required to block the results of candidates implicated in irregularities, including the candidates involved in group copying pending the outcome of further DBE investigations and Umalusi verification.”
The department should also “tighten the security at all levels” to ensure that there are no leakages of question papers any more.
The majority of the Grade 12 learners will receive their results on February 22. Over a million learners sat for the exams, making the class of 2020 the “largest cohort ever to write the National Senior Certificate”, as Volmink put it.
Umalusi announced on Monday that it had approved the release of the 2020 matric results. The leakages were not systemic to a point of stripping the results of their credibility and integrity, it said.
“The results are credible, and that statement is being made boldly looking at the processes that we follow,” said Umalusi chief executive Mafu Rakometsi.
The cost of being implicated in cheating includes ex-learners who have not received their results for years. They often have to resort to the courts in their fight against the department.
In 2015, 139 learners from Mashiyamahle High School in KwaZulu-Natal accused of being cheats ended up in court in a bid to compel the department to release their results.
While they had written their exams in 2014, news reports indicated that they were still fighting for the release of their results in December 2018.
A group of 172 pupils from New Era College in Malamulele, Limpopo, also took the court route in 2017. The owner of this independent school was accused of being involved in the leaking of the maths paper.
Another group of over 60 former Grade 12 learners implicated in a cheating scandal held a protest outside the office of the Eastern Cape Education Department in 2016.
This group had written the 2014 exams in high schools around Libode, Ngqeleni and Port St Johns.
“I should be doing my second year now at the university, but I’m sitting at home doing nothing,” one of the group told news site GroundUp at the protest.
It appears possible that some of the accused cheats never receive their results.
Cheating in exams is just not worth it, Rakometsi said. He said even if cheats received their results next week they should remain on edge.
“Should there be anything that went undetected, even in the report of the department with their further investigations going on, we’ll revisit the matter,” Rakometsi said.
“But as things stand, my advice to learners is that next week as they receive their results from the minister they must celebrate.
“Unless as an individual candidate you know that you cheated – then don’t celebrate, because we may come back to you. Wait before you celebrate,” Rakometsi said.
The Star