Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and the nine provincial MECs, as well as senior officials at the department, were locked in a meeting discussing how a Grade 12 science exam paper was leaked on Monday, just hours before pupils sat for the exam.
TimesLive reported that screenshots of the science exam question paper leaked in a WhatsApp group just hours before the start of the exam.
A department spokesperson declined to comment to IOL, adding that a statement will be released after the meeting.
But Elijah Mhlanga, spokesperson for the department, told a media group on WhatsApp: “At the moment however the minister is still chairing a meeting with MECs discussing this very issue so until the meeting is concluded there will be no media statement from us”.
The reported science exam paper leak comes barely a week after the maths papers 1 and 2 were leaked.
According to a report by the Daily News, maths paper 1 was allegedly leaked the day before the exam sat.
Many pupils at a KZN South Coast school apparently had access to the paper via a chat group.
A source at the school claimed that pupils still sat the exam despite the leak being brought to the school management’s attention.
Meanwhile, the DA has called on the department to answer for how the maths papers were leaked.
DA spokesperson on education, Nomsa Marchesi, said the leak has cast a cloud over the integrity of the matric exam process
“To ensure that the rest of the exams are beyond reproach, we need to know how this leak originated to prevent similar leaks in the future,” she said.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that further provinces, including Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, North West, Western Cape, Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, have also been affected by the leak, in addition to the leaks initially reported in Gauteng and Limpopo.
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Source: IOL