Matric 2022: Faulty maths paper, wrong papers released and pupils miss exams due to protest action

Umalusi has highlighted its concerns over incidents that have marred the 2022 matric exams. These include a mathematics paper which had an error in it, the prematurerelease of two question papers still to be written and protest action which delayed or caused pupils to miss their exams. 

In a statement, Umalusi's spokesperson Biki Lepota said they were concerned about the error in the mathematics paper 2 administered by the department of education. 

Lepota said the standard procedure for dealing with such issues is the marking guidelines. 

“Depending on the magnitude of the problem, the marks allocated to the question/s may be excluded from the question paper’s total marks or that alternative responses may be accepted. The external moderators of Umalusi attend these meetings and take responsibility for signing off the final marking guidelines after considering the responses of candidates and the deliberations. The fine-grained details of how the concerns were dealt with would be submitted for the consideration of Umalusi at the end of the marking process,” said Lepota.

Umalusi also revealed the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) had prematurely released two question papers on November 11 to Umalusi.

“These are the physical sciences paper 2 and the life sciences paper 1 which are scheduled to be written on November 14 and November 18 respectively.

"It is a requirement for assessment bodies to submit question papers to Umalusi after the writing of each paper so that Umalusi can perform its post-examination quality assurance processes prior to the standardisation of results. Instead of releasing paper 1 of physical sciences, which was written on November 11, the SACAI erroneously released paper 2 which is scheduled to be written on November 14,” said Lepota.

Lepota said since the erroneous release has the potential to put the credibility of the examination at risk, the SACAI has withdrawn the papers and will substitute them with backup question papers.

Umalusi has urged all assessment bodies and stakeholders to do everything possible to ensure the integrity of the 2022 national examinations is not compromised.

Meanwhile, hundreds of matriculants have been affected by protest action in various parts of the country. These have led to pupils either missing exams or being forced to start writing their paper later than scheduled.

Lepota said arrangements had to be made in  North West for about 460 candidates to be compensated for the time lost, while more than 50 candidates in Gauteng could not write the examination due to community protests.

Another 1,130 candidates were prevented from accessing their examination centres in Mpumalanga where they were scheduled to write either the mathematics or mathematical literacy paper 2 examinations.

“Umalusi commends the department of basic education for making arrangements for the affected candidates to be afforded the opportunity to write the examinations which were missed due to no fault of their own. Umalusi wishes to reiterate its position that it discourages communities from using national examinations as leverage for their protest actions. 

“While Umalusi respects the constitutional right of every citizen to protest, candidates should also be allowed to exercise their right to education by writing the examinations without any form of hindrance,” said Lepota.

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