Jane Furse – The decision to write two National Senior Certificate (NSC ) will be reversed if the court interdict sought for by Teacher’s union, is successful.
On Friday, South African Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced that Grade 12’s Mathematics Paper 2 and Physical Sciences Paper 2 will be written again (rewrite) following the leaked papers thereof.
National Professional Teacher’s Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA) and South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) didn’t agree with Motshekga’s decision, consequently, having SADTU deciding to file an urgent court interdict impugning the ministry decision, saying the cannot punish the entire class of 2020 for something done by a very few pupil thereof.
SADTU General Secretary Mugwena Maluleke said they were consulted regarding the inssue at hand and they expressed their views, despite their expressed views, the examination quality assurance body made a decision far from their expressed views in the end.
“The Minster called a meeting today and the unions said there’s no basis for and national rewrite, based on the initial investigation, because the number of pupils implicated, was and few and it did not warrant that all pupils must be punished… Malso met on their own and made their own decision whigh they took to the minister,” SADTU SG Maluleke said.
Maluleke said since the number of pupils who cheated are minute, they will show when marking their papers.
“We are working on the court papers now, to reverse the decision – it has no legal basis. The investigation shows that there was no major cheating and those cheated will show up in the marking process. We want to serve the papers to the court on Monday, we are just putting together some affidavits from pupils,” said Maluleke.
The Executive Director of NAPTOSA Basil Manuel, said they were as well briefed by the minister and Umalusi, and they were of significant concern regarding the way things are handled.
He also emphased Maluleke stressed that a very few implicated leaners can’t have thousands of learners punished for the crime they didn’t commit.
“We were role about Umalusi’s misgivings and integrity of the examination. However, NAPTOSA remain concerned. We still font believe that the few could possibly punish 400 000 children. We believe that there’s a better way to have done it and think this is punishment for a lot of innocent children, teachers and the system. We certainly have misgivings even though we hear the concerns about the integrity of the examination etc., however, we do believe it was a bit of overkill,” Manuel said.
At the moment, myriads of pupils are frustrated as they were rejoicing to have done with the papers they are told they will be rewriting.
Way forward would be disclosed tomorrow following the teachers union encounter with the court.
STUF News
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