Limpopo pupils to have their matric results withheld

Results from two schools in Limpopo hit by an exam leak scandal will be withheld when the country’s matric results are released on Thursday‚ January 4.

Basic education department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga confirmed that the pupils would not receive their results along with the rest of the Class of 2016.

“The regulations require that we withhold the results pending the outcome of an investigation‚” said Mhlanga.

In November‚ the Maths Paper II exam was leaked on a WhatsApp group. A 52-year-old man handed himself over to police and has been charged.

But apart from these two schools‚ Mhlanga said that everything was in order for the release of the marks on Thursday. The Sunday Times reported that the overall pass rate was expected to increase marginally‚ by about 1.9 percentage points.

“We have done everything that we needed to do and it’s all systems go‚” said Mhlanga.

The only thing that remains is to have their results statements printed.

Mhlanga said that there were some issues in each of the provinces‚ but the department was nonetheless confident in the performance of the matric cohort.

“Limpopo had Vuwani to deal with‚ the Eastern Cape had to work on recovering from last year’s decline‚ KwaZulu-Natal is the biggest in terms of enrolment in Grade 12 and they also needed to work hard to recover from the steep decline last year. The Northern Cape is the smallest and they have had to improve results given the fact that theirs is a small province which can be managed better‚” he said.

TMG Digital/Sunday Times