According to Section27, the pupils consistently denied cheating and explained that they attended an under-resourced school.
Image used for illustration. Picture: iStock
Fifty former matric pupils from Baphutheng Senior Secondary School in Limpopo have been cleared of examination irregularities after the High Court in Polokwane found that the provincial education department failed to prove they committed any form of cheating.
The Limpopo Division of the High Court ordered the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) to release the pupils’ National Senior Certificate statements of results and certificates following a legal challenge supported by Section27.
The pupils had spent almost two years under the label of “cheaters” after similarities in their Business Studies Paper 1 and Economics Paper 2 answers were treated as evidence of group copying.
Court finds examination process unlawful
According to Section27, the pupils consistently denied cheating and explained that they attended an under-resourced school where they had limited access to textbooks and other learning materials.
Educators at the school used teaching methods including singing, group repetition and recitation to help pupils memorise concepts and essay structures.
However, Section27 said there was no direct evidence that pupils copied from one another during the examinations.
It also said the teachers, invigilators and school principal were not questioned about the similarities between the examination scripts.
On 1 October, Acting Judge Masilo handed down an order setting aside the disciplinary findings against the pupils, as well as subsequent decisions by the former acting head of department and MEC after the pupils appealed.
The court found that the LDoE had failed to establish that the pupils had committed an examination irregularity.
The court also found that the former acting head of department communicated findings against the pupils even though the legally required body had not made the relevant decision and recommendation.
Results must be released
The court ordered the LDoE to provide the pupils with complete, unredacted statements of results within five days.
The results must be free from any annotation or suggestion of examination irregularities.
The department must also issue the pupils’ formal National Senior Certificates within 30 days, without any adverse endorsement.
Section27 said the department’s handling of the matter had caused trauma and cost the pupils almost two years.
“The department’s incompetence resulted in trauma for the learners, wasting two years of their lives that they will never get back,” it said.
Section27 said the case also highlighted how inequality affects pupils at under-resourced schools.
“Teaching methods developed in response to inequality should never become another way of punishing learners for the inequality they already endure,” it said.
The organisation said pupils should not be subjected to what it described as abuse of power and discrimination by a system intended to protect them.
