On Friday 11 December, Judge Norman Davis overturned the decision of the Department of Basic Education to have the matrics rewrite the two leaked exam papers, namely Mathematics Paper 2 and Physical Sciences Paper 2.
Umalusi the quality assurance body said it was disappointed by this ruling made in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, as it could not yet anticipate the outcome of its own processes used to determine whether the 2020 NSC exams will be approved.
“In the meantime, Umalusi will continue to support and work in collaboration with the relevant structures in the ongoing investigations into the leakage of the two papers,” a statement from Umalusi read.
eNCA spoke to Professor Metcalfe, former education MEC in Gauteng and a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg regarding the overturned decision. She says that the question of when the two leaked papers should be declared as being free of irregularity made decision making regarding the rewrite far also rushed and hasty.
“The real question going forward is what can be done to protect the integrity, the credibility, the validity of this year’s 2020 Maths and Science results.”-Professor Metcalfe, former education MEC in Gauteng and a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg.
On the question of what happens if Umalusi decides not approve the Mathematics and Physical Sciences exams, Professor Metcalfe says that those papers would be cancelled and all learners would then have to rewrite it at a later stage.
Professor Metcalfe says that while investigations are ongoing, when it comes to the papers being marked there will be a look for inconsistencies and records of continuous assessment results may be compared to the outcome of these papers so that Umalusi may base their decision of approval on this.
The more you understand yourself, the more silence there is, the healthier you are. —Maxime Lagacé
