The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has instructed renowned forensic company, Ramathe Fivaz Forensic and Investigative Accounting Services, to investigate a possible breach of exam security at a Gauteng school.
This follows information of a potential breach of matric exam security at a high school in Soweto last week Friday.
The forensic company is contracted to the Gauteng Department of Education as external investigators of irregularities arising from the matric examinations.
“The potential breach occurred when an invigilator opened a specially enlarged physical science examination paper that had been specially requested for a partially-sighted candidate. The invigilator saw that the individually-packed partially-sighted learner’s paper was physical science two, instead of physical science one that all the other learners were writing,” GDE spokesperson, Charles Phahlane, said.
The invigilator then sealed the exam paper and personally returned it to the distribution centre.
“On the basis of the facts before us, there is nothing to suggest that the contents of the physical science two paper were seen by any learner at the school. All candidates, including the partially-sighted candidate, continued to write the physical science one paper with no further problems,” Phahlane added.
All candidates at the school wrote the physical science two paper on Monday, 16 November.
Phahlane said the GDE had since taken measures to protect the integrity of the exams by “quarantining the scripts for physical science papers one and two for the concerned school for further investigation. We have also appointed a provincial official to act as a chief invigilator at the school to further strengthen the matric examinations process.”
“We are also confident that this was an individual, isolated incident which does not affect the integrity of the science question papers as a whole. However, to maintain public confidence in the matric examination process and to prevent future occurrences of such incidents,” Phahlane said.
Ramathe Fivaz will conduct a detailed investigation, ascertaining how this incident arose, and what steps, if any, need to be taken to further protect the integrity of the matric examinations in Gauteng.
Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
18 November 2009
Source: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.education.gpg.gov.za/)
