Teachers’ unions have expressed concerns about the impact on matriculants of having to rewrite maths paper 2 and physical science paper 2.
The department of education announced the national rewrites on Friday, saying the outcome of the first round of exams was compromised because of leaked papers.
According to TimesLive, both the National Professional Teachers’ Union of SA (Naptosa) and the Professional Educators Union (PEU) expressed concerns about the effect on matrics of having to rewrite the two exams.
Naptosa executive director Basil Manuel said his union was ‘gravely unhappy because we think it’s an overreaction to a small number of learners that may have accessed the paper and we are punishing almost 400 000 learners’.
He added: ‘We understand there’s a concern about the integrity of the exams and we are fully behind Umalusi in trying to protect the integrity of the exams but we do believe that there are other ways to do it.’
He said Naptosa was ‘very concerned about the mental health of the children because this is just stressing them out even more after an extremely stressful year’.
Ben Machipi, general secretary of the PEU, said the union was ‘greatly pained by the decision’, but added: ‘While this is a bitter pill to swallow, more especially that this is not a problem of our learners’ own making, it remains very difficult to establish who have seen the leaked papers and who have not and as such, a rewrite remains the only fair option that can be given to our learners under the circumstances.’
Machipi said: ‘We therefore enjoin all affected learners, our members, parents, [and the] community at large, to accept the decision by Umalusi, and prepare to rewrite the papers…’.
Earlier on Friday, education minister minister Angie Motshekga said the rewrites were necessary to guarantee the ‘credibility’ of the national senior certificate (NSC).
‘Credibility of the NSC examination is of paramount importance. Any lingering doubt relating to the credibility of the NSC examinations must be thoroughly investigated and addressed. Avoiding prior access to the question paper is what all security measures are directed towards.’
Having considered all these factors, the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) decided that a national rewrite of maths paper 2 and physical science paper 2 was necessary.
‘It was not an easy decision to take but one which is necessary under the circumstances. We need to work hard to deal with the human factor in the examination system,” she said.
According to TimesLive, pupils’ fury over the national rewrite of the maths paper 2 and physical science paper 2 was also very evident on Twitter.
One tweeted: ‘This is not fair. Why should the masses suffer because of a few people’s mistake?’
Another tweet read: ‘It’s easy to say rewrite because you aren’t writing it. This is very short notice and unfair. Most of us finish on the 11th and four days after you expect us to write a maths exam.’
And another said: ‘Ah yes … clearly you can see that the department absolutely does not care about the physical or mental wellbeing of its students. I truly can’t believe how incompetent these people are.’
[Picture: Shekinyashi, mussa, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64429456]