Question NW426 to the Minister of Higher Education and Training

(1)

(a)

1. The Department has initiated and undertaken an investigation into the reported leakage of examination papers in November 2017 in some Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges. Forensic investigators were appointed by the Department and they have already uncovered some evidence related to the leakage of question papers and further investigation is underway. Depending on the findings and recommendations of the forensic investigations, the necessary corrective actions will be taken, e.g. if officials have been implicated, criminal and/or misconduct charges will be laid; where there is a breach in controls, these will be improved; senior managers who allowed ineffective controls will face consequence management, etc.

(b)

The following 5 NATED Engineering question papers leaked during the November 2017 examination, i.e. Mathematics N2, Industrial Electronics N2, Mathematics N3, Engineering Science N3 and Mechanotechnology N3.

(2)

(a)

The Chief Directorate: National Examinations and Assessment shared its irregularity report with the quality assurance body, Umalusi.

(b)

All instances of question paper leakages were reported to the South African Police Service and the Directorate: Special Investigations.

(3)

The errors and spelling mistakes on the leaked memoranda implies that it was not the final version and possibly emanated from the section involved in the drafting stage of these examination papers.

(4)

(a)

The leakage was brought to the attention of the Department shortly after the paper had been written and not before as alleged. The standard operating procedure in these instances is to withdraw and replace the paper where possible.

(b)

Where a paper has been written, marks are released if the examiners and moderators report confirms that statistically there is no indication of the students having access to leaked papers.

(5)

(a)

(i)

Three (3) candidates.

(ii)

Three (3) campuses.

(b)

The audit of all scripts for the implicated centres were conducted during the marking process and auditors (chief markers and experienced markers) used the following criteria to evaluate the candidates’ responses:

• Similar pattern of responses across scripts, where high marks were achieved in individual questions or across all questions, which suggests that candidates had prior knowledge and/or possession of the question paper.

• Any other pattern that may suggest that candidates (individuals or groups) had prior knowledge and/or possession of the question paper.

• Range of marks achieved across the candidates at a centre is unusually high when compared to the previous examination(s) cycle.

After an investigation or auditing of scripts, it was found that that leakage was limited to three candidates across three campuses.