State Security Agency tackles matric cheating with exam printing site audits

The department of basic education has roped in the State Security Agency (SSA) to conduct an audit of the sites where matric exam question papers will be printed.

Teachers will also, for the first time, have to sign a pledge confirming they will not commit any irregularity during this year’s matric exams. 

Rufus Poliah, the department’s chief director for public exams and assessments, made the announcements at a briefing on matric exam readiness to parliament on Tuesday. 

The pledge has normally only been signed by matric candidates to confirm their non-participation in acts of dishonesty during the writing of the exams. 

“This year we want to get not just our pupils to sign a pledge but we want our educators to sign a pledge committing that they would not in any way be complicit in any kind of exam irregularity.” 

Last year the Sunday Times broke the story of a brazen matric cheating scandal in Mpumalanga where some teachers and invigilators allegedly helped pupils to copy papers.

All provincial education departments were found to be fully prepared to print, pack, store and distribute question papers. The department has clear criteria that must be satisfied at centres where question papers are stored.

Poliah admitted that in 2021 and last year some principals and invigilators “let us down by betraying the trust we have in them to conduct an exam at the school”. 

“We are dealing with that matter, particularly in the case of principals where they opened up some of the security bags while moving the question paper from the distribution point to their school.” 

Referring to the cheating in Mpumalanga last year, he said it was found that when the question paper was opened in the exam room “some of our principals and teachers were instrumental in sharing that with subject specialists who then prepared responses and shared that with some pupils”. 

He said, however, that in the past two years no question papers were leaked, adding “we are confident that in 2023 there will be no leakage of question papers. We have a very good mechanism of picking up any elements of group copying during our marking.” 

Poliah said that the SSA has conducted an audit of seven of the printing sites and “picked up minor issues that have been dealt with”. 

“This gives us a sense of confidence that the State Security Agency has looked at these centres and picked up any noncompliance with the high security levels that we want to implement.” 

The North West and Free State sites will be audited later this month. 

“All provincial education departments were found to be fully prepared to print, pack, store and distribute question papers. The department has clear criteria that must be satisfied at centres where question papers are stored.” 

He said because question papers are stored at each of the schools in Western Cape, the schools had to satisfy the criteria relating to a storage point. “The province uses a smart locking mechanism as an added security mechanism to ensure security at schools.” 

A total of 162 question papers set by expert subject panels were ready for printing. 

“Uppermost in our minds is making sure there is no serious exam irregularity. The leakage of question papers and group copying is a priority.” 

He said every province had to comply with 11 non-negotiables that. These include: 

• Full security compliance at printing site; 
• 100% compliance on all storage points; 
• Highest quality level of invigilator training; 
• Accurate release of every candidate’s results; and 
• Improvement in reporting and managing irregularities. 

Besides getting pupils and teachers to sign a pledge, another measure to curb exam irregularities was greater advocacy to encourage honesty by pupils, teachers and principals. 

“Parents and pupils sign the commitment agreement where they bind themselves to follow specific rules relating to the exam and to make any irregularity related information immediately available to the school principal or the hotline.” 

He said pupils had to surrender their cellphone if there is an allegation of involvement. “Acceptance of assistance in the exam room will imply complicity.”

Maths literacy recorded a drop of 23,763 in enrolment from 460,708 last year to 436,945 this year

He said they had been criticised over the fact that while the pass percentage was high, the number of pupils in grade 10 who eventually write matric “was not telling the same story”. 

At least 74.3% of pupils from the grade 10 cohort were now in matric. 

“Obviously, we are concerned about some of the provinces that are at 60% and below, while the national average is 74.3%.” 

Gauteng had the lowest advancement rate of all the provinces with only 58.8% of grade 10 pupils finally making it into matric this year. 

While 753,964 pupils entered for the matric exams last year, only 723,971 had registered so far by the end of August. 

Poliah said the figure was still preliminary and “we believe that this number will get close to 750,000”. 

Maths literacy recorded a drop of 23,763 in enrolment from 460,708 last year to 436,945 this year. 

The number of pupils choosing geography dropped by 21,643 from 377,075 last year to 355,432. 

The exams will be written at 6,337 state schools and 552 independent schools. 

A total of 53,926 markers were appointed and will mark at 190 marking centres. 

Matric results will be released to pupils on January 19 next year.