The spokesperson for the Department of Education, Malibongwe Mtima, confirmed that Grade 12 learners from Cibeni Senior Secondary School in Port St Johns, who were implicated in cheating in the final exams, would not receive their results, which have been nullified.
Mtima said those who were implicated in this saga were the learners who were writing tourism, accounting, business study, life science, maths literacy and physical science.
“But those who were not doing these subjects would get their results. Lastly, those who were implicated in these subjects and were found guilty based on the evidence on their scripts, have been barred from writing exams for three examination sessions,” said Mtima. He said they could only register to write in November 2024.
According to Mtima, there were 32 educators and six principals who were also implicated in this matter and, as a result, the department had arranged a disciplinary hearing process against them. Mtima said, at the moment, he would not mention the names of the other schools where these principals worked.
“The reason why we always urge our learners to sign (the anti-cheating) pledge is that we want them to stay away from this behaviour because this is not good and has an impact on their future.”
The national organisational developer for the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), Sichumile Plaatjie, said they had made a follow up on this issue and they were against the decision that was taken which said these learners would only be allowed to write exams again after three years.
“We are still shocked about this because there was no investigation which took place at the marking centre which proved that these learners cheated. This shows that schools in the rural areas are undermined,” said Plaatjie.
