Umalusi warns protestors not to use exams as ‘bargaining tool’
Education and training quality assurer Umalusi has pleaded with protesting
communities to not disrupt the upcoming Grade 12 examinations.
Umalusi briefed the media on the state of readiness for the upcoming National Senior Certificate exams on Friday.
The exams, which are set to begin on Monday, will see more than 600 000 full-time students sit for their finals.
CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi says community protests should not get in the way of learners writing their final exams.
“One of the challenges we have experienced in the previous years is the increase in community protests, which constantly threaten to derail the learners’ chance to complete their examinations without interference. I therefore want to make an appeal to members of various communities across the country not to use grade 12 examinations and the future of our children as a bargaining tool for their own political ends.”
Umalusi also raised concerns over cheating, but Rakometsi believes the necessary measures have been put in place prevent exam papers from falling into the wrong hands.
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“We have developed mechanism to dealing with things like group copying which is a new phenomenon where question papers leak so on and so forth.
“We have a new approach of printing just in time, instead of printing two months or three months in advance; we print just in time, close to when the paper will be written to ensure that the papers don’t lie there, in a manner that is tempting to the people who are dishonest to the point where they are able to steal them,” he adds.
Students who will be sitting down for their final exams, will take a pledge administered by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Friday.
The pledge is meant to entrench and promote ‘the no-cheating culture’.
“With regards to the pledges that the students will be doing this morning in the different centers throughout the country. It is a question of conscientising them. While it is true that they have exam regulations printed, they need to be conscientised by having a ceremony of some sort for them to remember that this is what you have committed to,” Rakometsi adds.