A brazen matric exam cheating scandal has rocked Mpumalanga, with pupils in several schools allegedly paying teachers up to R1,500 to join WhatsApp groups on which answers were posted while exams were in session.
One of the WhatsApp groups, “Road to Varsity”, provided answers to exam questions for maths and physical science.
It is believed some teachers and invigilators helped pupils to cheat. In addition to posting answers on the WhatsApp groups, they allegedly provided answers to pupils during toilet breaks and even passed crib notes to them in exam halls.
Pupils were told they should take two cellphones into exam venues, one of them hidden in their sock, so they could hand the other one in if they were asked to hand in their cellphones before entering.
Pupils use two cellphones. They hide the one that’s working in their socks and carry the other one in their pocket so if they are caught they hand in the one from their pocket
— Whistleblower
Some teachers even suggested pupils wrap their cellphones in aluminium foil to bypass metal detectors at exam venues.
A whistleblower told officials that more than 370 grade 12 pupils from three schools were members of the Road to Varsity WhatsApp group. He said there were at least two other WhatsApp groups, each with its own subscription fee.
The cheating racket is the latest in several such scandals over the years. Last year 57 Eastern Cape teachers and more than 800 matriculants were implicated in exam cheating.
In 2020, the maths paper 2 and physical sciences paper 2 exams were leaked, one allegedly by a worker whose company was contracted to print the exam papers, and the other from the government printing works.
Basic education department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said Saturday director-general Mathanzima Mweli had approved the establishment of a task team to conduct a full-blown probe into the Mpumalanga scandal.
A preliminary inquiry was launched after the department received a tip-off on its exam hotline of irregularities at several schools in the Manyeleti circuit in Bushbuckridge.
The WhatsApp racket was exposed on November 22 when a teacher from Dlumana High posted answers for the life sciences paper 2 on a group used by teachers — apparently by mistake, having intended to send the answers to cheating pupils.
He deleted it soon afterwards.
The teacher, who was a deputy chief invigilator at the school, allegedly contravened regulations by being in possession of the life sciences paper 2. He has been suspended, Mhlanga said.
Four days earlier, a pupil who arrived at Nyamazane High School to write the life sciences paper 1 had jumped the fence and run away after he was stopped while trying to smuggle a cellphone into the exam room.
Pupils at Nyamazane High were implicated in cheating in several subjects last year.
Education department investigators visited this school, Dlumana High, Tlhavekisa Secondary and Mdluli High.
The Sunday Times has established that seven teachers from Dlumana High, 12 from Tlhavekisa Secondary and 13 from Mdluli High who were appointed to mark matric papers have had their appointments revoked.
Mhlanga said the department “proactively removed teachers at most schools where irregularities were identified by monitors to remove doubts and secure the credibility of marking”.
The department’s whistleblower told the Sunday Times that pupils who received answers via the WhatsApp groups or through crib notes passed to them by teachers had boasted about it.
“Teachers from different schools in the circuit are involved in writing answers to questions. There are teachers writing answers for physical science while others are writing answers for maths.”
The whistleblower said teachers would look at the question papers and then write the answers and photocopy them for the pupils.
“Pupils use two cellphones. They hide the one that’s working in their socks and carry the other one in their pocket so that if they are caught they hand in the one from their pocket.”
He said pupils who did not have money to join the WhatsApp groups would complain about those who paid to receive answers.
It appears that more than one teacher was involved in the chat group cheating related to the life sciences paper 2 because the answers were in different handwriting.
The department of education’s investigators will try to establish how cellphones were smuggled into exam venues despite the use of metal detectors at most schools.
The team’s terms of reference, which have been seen by the Sunday Times, include establishing how a question paper was removed from an exam room and how the teacher got access to it.
The team will also seek to establish what other chat groups teachers from the circuit belonged to, and whether the racket extended to other schools.
It will then make recommendations on the credibility of exam results from schools in the circuit.
The terms of reference also recommend that the investigators receive police protection because “from the look of things, this might be dangerous as this will be touching on people’s livelihoods”.
Mhlanga said the department was “thoroughly investigating” the whistleblower’s allegations.
“Candidates scripts will also be subjected to investigative marking to establish whether they were assisted. If there is any suspicion of wrongdoing, their results will be blocked and further investigations carried out.”
Mhlanga said investigative marking will be implemented for all suspected cases at all schools thought to be involved.
Regarding the whistleblower’s allegation that teachers had passed answers to pupils during bathroom breaks, he said candidates were accompanied by invigilators when they visited the toilets.
“An in-depth investigation of irregularities is under way. No question paper was received or opened prematurely.
“A subject teacher is not allowed to have access to question papers of his or her subject before the end of the exam session and is not allowed to invigilate his or her subject.”
Asked about the allegation that pupils had paid to join the Whatsapp group, Mhlanga said the department was deeply disappointed about the scandal “and will ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book”.
“We will ensure that we get to the bottom of what transpired and learners that participated in these actions will have their results blocked. Teachers will also be dealt with in terms of the appropriate disciplinary code.”
Mhlanga said teachers found guilty during internal disciplinary hearings of assisting pupils with answers would be reported to police to face possible fraud charges.
“We need to do all we can to protect the credibility, integrity, image and profile of the National Senior Certificate examinations.”
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