Umalusi: Load shedding, cheating, protests main exam concerns
Education quality assurance body Umalusi has highlighted load shedding, cheating and community protests as some of the factors that could possibly disrupt the smooth running of the matric exams.
The quality assurance body briefed the media on Friday morning following an audit of the state of readiness of the public and private assessment bodies to conduct, administer, and manage the 2023 national matric examinations.
While the quality assurer was satisfied with the state of readiness, CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi said he was concerned that exams could be negatively affected by various factors, including load shedding, cheating and community protests.
On load shedding, he said Umalusi had advised all assessment bodies to make alternative arrangements for the supply of power during the writing of exams.
"Umalusi would like to issue a stern warning to all learners and teachers to refrain from all forms of cheating, including group copying, where teachers are sometimes implicated.
“At the same time, Umalusi discourages communities from using the national exams as leverage for their protest actions," he said.
Rakometsi also raised concerns about unaccredited institutions and the selling of fake certificates.
"Umalusi is satisfied with the work done to curb unaccredited institutions from registering candidates for the national exams.
“The meeting that Umalusi convened on 18 August 2023 with the senior officials from the national and provincial education departments, the Independent Examinations Board and the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute agreed on measures to be taken to prevent the operation of illegal independent schools and ensure that examinations are only administered at independent schools accredited by Umalusi.”
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