Let matrics write final exams online, says distance education provider

One of the country’s major distance education providers is pushing for matric exams to be written online.

Karen Sickel Wucherpfennig, enrolments manager at Teneo School, confirmed that her CEO, John Shaw, had motivated for the introduction of online matric exams with the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (Sacai) earlier this year.

Sacai is one of the three assessment bodies responsible for administering the matric exams, the others being the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) and the department of basic education.

About 4,177 part-time candidates have registered for this year’s exams through Sacai, which is being conducted at 72 exam centres countrywide.

Wucherpfennig said: “A degree can be done online, so why not matric exams?”

She said Shaw told Sacai’s CEO Keith Maseko how Teneo had been very successfully conducting tests and exams online. 

Teneo, which has 837 matric pupils writing its exams, provides study materials and tuition to homeschooled pupils through live virtual online classes.

“All Teneo’s tests and exams, from grade 4 to 12, are done online, even the grade 12 preliminary exams, so the finals could definitely be done that way too.”

Louise Schoonwinkel, MD of Optimi which owns Impaq, another distance education provider, said they would also welcome the writing of matric exams online.

“Online software enables regulating bodies to control exams better, by protecting against the leaking of papers.”

All Teneo’s tests and exams, from grade 4 to 12, are done online, even the grade 12 preliminary exams, so the finals could definitely be done that way too.

—  Karen Sickel Wucherpfennig of Teneo School

She said that online invigilation software “also eliminates learners having to travel to exam centres and saves costs as physical invigilators aren’t needed”.

Schoonwinkel said that pupils living overseas could write their exams without having to travel to SA.

“We have learners whose parents are working as expats in other countries. There are also learners living in outlying areas, who have to travel up to 300km to get to the closest exam centre.”

Asked how pupils would be monitored for cheating during an online exam, Schoonwinkel said a software device tracks eye contact and the use of mobile devices. “The candidate will also record that they are alone at the start and it will pick up anyone who enters the room.” She said Unisa uses similar software for the writing of tests and exams online.

A total of 1,800 grade 12 pupils registered with Impaq this year.

Maseko confirmed that Impaq had approached Sacai on the issue of matric exams being written online.

“We would welcome any move to have the matric exams written online but it would have to be piloted first. The right infrastructure needs to be in place for the exams to have credibility and validity.”

In July the University of Cape Town launched an online high school, which has attracted over 7,000 applications.

Umalusi spokesperson Lucky Ditaunyane said while neither online schools nor exams were regulated at present, they “remain open to the potential of online exams in our education system”.

He said there had been a proliferation of online institutions since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The department of basic education has started a process of amending the relevant legislation to accommodate online provision.”

He said that, in the meantime, organisations and individuals interested in getting involved in the space must cooperate with the department and Umalusi to make it possible for them to operate.

“Currently, accreditation of online schools falls outside the legislative mandate of Umalusi, and therefore we cannot attest to the quality of the curriculum at online schools.”

He warned parents to be careful about enrolling their children at unregulated schools.

Ditaunyane said that if an online school wanted to register candidates to write the matric exam, it had to do so through an accredited public or private assessment body.