Matric exams: KZN leads the cheating pack

KZN apparently had the highest level of matric final examination cheating in 2023, according to Umalusi.

According to the national education quality assurance body, a total of 945 candidates were involved in group copying — with 800 cases (80.7%) from KZN.

The DA said funding cuts that ultimately affected the proper delivery of the examinations must now become a matter of intense scrutiny by KZN’s education portfolio committee this year.

“Those pupils who have been implicated have not only brought shame upon themselves and their families, they have put a spoke in the wheel of their future.

“They could face criminal charges, barring them from ever writing the exams again; or they could be sanctioned and only write again in two years, depending on the decisions of various national and provincial irregularity committees,” says DA KZN spokesperson on education Dr Imran Keeka.

Regardless of the outcome, Keeka says cheating could never be condoned and those learners contemplating such dishonesty in the future must learn from this.

“Crookedness does not pay and the consequences once nabbed must be dire,” he adds.

MEC should be accountable – IFP

Sharing similar sentiments, IFP spokesperson for education in the province Thembeni KaMadhlopha-Mthethwa says it is disheartening and embarrassing to learn of the statistics from Umalusi. KaMadhlopha-Mthethwa adds that the KZN MEC for Education Mbali Frazer must be held accountable.

“We demand to know how pupils managed to cheat during the matric exams in October 2023 when we were led to believe by the MEC that they are ‘combat ready’ for the 2023 matric exams.”

She urges the Department of Education to investigate which teachers were in those exam rooms, which monitors were deployed to those exam centres and a full-scale investigation must take place.

“There should never be a space for cheating during the national senior certificate examinations, and cheaters must be dealt with appropriately,” she adds.

“We call for increased vigilance in the 2024 examinations so that any actions that compromise the integrity of the NSC results are stamped out.”