While the marking of matric papers ended on December 20 it has emerged that two script markers died in car crashes and a third was taken to hospital after being bitten by a spider.
Giving an exam status update to teacher unions, director-general of basic education Mathanzima Mweli confirmed on Friday the markers died in separate vehicle accidents in the Free State and Eastern Cape.
Zisebenzele Mramba was travelling home to KwaBhaca from the Strelitzia marking centre in Kariega near Kenton-on-Sea on December 21 when he was involved in a crash on the N2 near Mthentu Cuttings.
Other serious incidents during the marking process included:
• A marker being injured on the stairs at a marking centre in Limpopo
• A dispute by administrative staff over marking in Eastern Cape
• A marker being injured at a marking centre in the Free State, a pregnant marker who developed complications, plus the spider bite incident — though no further details about it were provided; and
• Three markers falling ill in the Western Cape.
A total of 1,475 markers were unavailable on the first day marking centres opened across the country. Their places were filled by reserve markers.
Teacher unions were told the marking session for agricultural management practice had to be extended due to a shortage of markers.
According to Mweli’s presentation, key exam irregularities included group copying, crib notes, cellphone possession and alleged group copying at the Manyeleti circuit in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.
“Investigations are being conducted across all provincial education departments and PEIC [provincial exams irregularities committees] are being convened prior to the national exams irregularities committee meeting on January 3.”
The presentation mentioned a team from the department of basic education and Mpumalanga education department “are in the midst of the Manyeleti investigation”.
“Irregularities are limited to a few schools in the Manyeleti and Thulamahashe circuits, not more than five schools.”
The Sunday Times reported that a life sciences teacher from Dlumana High was suspended on November 22 after allegedly posting answers for the life sciences paper 2 on a WhatsApp group used by teachers — apparently by mistake, having intended to send the answers to cheating pupils. He deleted it soon afterwards.
During a preliminary investigation of the incident, the team visited four schools, including Dlumana High, Mugena High and Nyamazane High from the Manyeleti circuit and Magigwana Secondary from the Thulamahashe circuit.
Load-shedding was highlighted as one of the challenges during marking.
With the exception of KwaZulu-Natal, all provincial education departments had backup generators.
“Load-shedding necessitates restarting of computers, servers and the mainframe which can cause further delays. There was also the risk of computer malfunctions on restart.”
Mweli said that marks were being captured at 37 venues across South Africa.
“A total of 19.5 million marks have been captured including 8.1 million internal assessment marks and 11.3 million external assessment marks.”
The capturing of internal assessment marks started on October 31 and was completed on November 30 while the capturing of external assessment marks started on December 11 and ends on December 27.
According to the presentation, evidence for the standardisation of marks will be gathered from internal moderators' reports and an item analysis from a sample of scripts.
It will also be collected from Mweli’s meetings with provinces and subject specialists, chief examiners and internal moderators.
He said pupils had to sign a new consent form issued to them for return to provincial education departments by December 5.
Mweli said the exams mainframe has been modified to capture new POPIA [Protection of Personal Information Act] consent forms with five indicators.
“Provincial education departments are busy collecting and capturing returned forms. Legal advice was also obtained from senior counsel.”
Mweli, who visited 187 marking centres in 15 days, said the Umalusi standardisation meeting will take place on January 6 and Umalusi will approve the results on January 12.
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga will announce the results on January 19 which will be followed by the release of the provincial results on January 20.
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Two matric exam markers died in road accidents, another taken to hospital after spider bite
Image: 123RF/archnoi1
While the marking of matric papers ended on December 20 it has emerged that two script markers died in car crashes and a third was taken to hospital after being bitten by a spider.
Giving an exam status update to teacher unions, director-general of basic education Mathanzima Mweli confirmed on Friday the markers died in separate vehicle accidents in the Free State and Eastern Cape.
Zisebenzele Mramba was travelling home to KwaBhaca from the Strelitzia marking centre in Kariega near Kenton-on-Sea on December 21 when he was involved in a crash on the N2 near Mthentu Cuttings.
Other serious incidents during the marking process included:
• A marker being injured on the stairs at a marking centre in Limpopo
• A dispute by administrative staff over marking in Eastern Cape
• A marker being injured at a marking centre in the Free State, a pregnant marker who developed complications, plus the spider bite incident — though no further details about it were provided; and
• Three markers falling ill in the Western Cape.
A total of 1,475 markers were unavailable on the first day marking centres opened across the country. Their places were filled by reserve markers.
Teacher unions were told the marking session for agricultural management practice had to be extended due to a shortage of markers.
According to Mweli’s presentation, key exam irregularities included group copying, crib notes, cellphone possession and alleged group copying at the Manyeleti circuit in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.
“Investigations are being conducted across all provincial education departments and PEIC [provincial exams irregularities committees] are being convened prior to the national exams irregularities committee meeting on January 3.”
The presentation mentioned a team from the department of basic education and Mpumalanga education department “are in the midst of the Manyeleti investigation”.
“Irregularities are limited to a few schools in the Manyeleti and Thulamahashe circuits, not more than five schools.”
The Sunday Times reported that a life sciences teacher from Dlumana High was suspended on November 22 after allegedly posting answers for the life sciences paper 2 on a WhatsApp group used by teachers — apparently by mistake, having intended to send the answers to cheating pupils. He deleted it soon afterwards.
During a preliminary investigation of the incident, the team visited four schools, including Dlumana High, Mugena High and Nyamazane High from the Manyeleti circuit and Magigwana Secondary from the Thulamahashe circuit.
Load-shedding was highlighted as one of the challenges during marking.
With the exception of KwaZulu-Natal, all provincial education departments had backup generators.
“Load-shedding necessitates restarting of computers, servers and the mainframe which can cause further delays. There was also the risk of computer malfunctions on restart.”
Mweli said that marks were being captured at 37 venues across South Africa.
“A total of 19.5 million marks have been captured including 8.1 million internal assessment marks and 11.3 million external assessment marks.”
The capturing of internal assessment marks started on October 31 and was completed on November 30 while the capturing of external assessment marks started on December 11 and ends on December 27.
According to the presentation, evidence for the standardisation of marks will be gathered from internal moderators' reports and an item analysis from a sample of scripts.
It will also be collected from Mweli’s meetings with provinces and subject specialists, chief examiners and internal moderators.
He said pupils had to sign a new consent form issued to them for return to provincial education departments by December 5.
Mweli said the exams mainframe has been modified to capture new POPIA [Protection of Personal Information Act] consent forms with five indicators.
“Provincial education departments are busy collecting and capturing returned forms. Legal advice was also obtained from senior counsel.”
Mweli, who visited 187 marking centres in 15 days, said the Umalusi standardisation meeting will take place on January 6 and Umalusi will approve the results on January 12.
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga will announce the results on January 19 which will be followed by the release of the provincial results on January 20.
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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