BEWARE: Forge school certificate at own peril
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M– Forging or altering a school certificate will now carry a maximum penalty of E10 000 or two year imprisonment.
This comes with the newly formed Examination Council of Eswatini (ECESWA) Bill which is scheduled to be made law soon. The proposed act will now make ECESWA to be a fully-fledged government parastatal with a legal status to enter into a contract on its own. Though the council was autonomous in its operations, it lacked the legal instrument which is an Act of Parliament. The Exams Council will also have its own Appeals Tribunal for those who feel their cases were mishandled by the Council.
The new legislation is on the laps of parliamentarians for approval before it gets the royal accent to be made law. It is piloted by the Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza. It equates the title of Registrar of ECESWA to the popular corporate title of Chief Executive Officer. “Anyone who presents a forged certificate which bears the seal of the Council or utters falsified information to a prospective employer or to an educational or training institution to gain admission or any other advantage not lawfully commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding E10 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years,” reads the proposed piece of legislation.
In the event the person who committed such an offense was a candidate of an examination, the certificate and results of such a person will be nullified or cancelled. Other offences that are punishable in a similar manner include printing, publishing or selling a certificate which bears the seal (emblem, letter head or similar) of the Council without the authority of the institution.
Punishment
Any officer or employee of the Council who will also participate or lend a helping hand in such activities will attract similar punishment from law. The Council also retains the authority to take disciplinary action to disqualify candidates or schools for any offence or breach of examination regulations. Any other act of dishonesty, malpractice or maladministration by any person other than the candidate shall be dealt with in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Council.
The Council will now have a Malpractice Committee which still deal with the widespread habit of copying or related activities during external examinations. It will be composed of the Chief Inspector as Chairperson; a designated product manager who is responsible for the affected subject who shall be the Secretary; a representative of a recognised teachers’ association who is a head teacher as well as a member of the Council.
“The Malpractice Committee shall observe rules of administrative
Minister of Education Training Lady Mabuza. malPractice and
justice in hearing matters brought before the committee,” the Bill reads.
The Minister of Education and Training also has the prerogative to appoint an Appeals Tribunal which will comprise a lawyer, who is a representative of the Attorney General; an educator with experience in the management of public examinations and a representative of a faculty of education from a recognised institution. “A candidate who is aggrieved by a decision of the Council may within 21 days, after that candidate is notified of the decision of the Council, appeal to the Appeals Tribunal.”
Similarly, a teacher who is aggrieved by the decision of the Council may within 21 days file an appeal.
In the event that there are proven cases of malpractice committed by a teacher, the Council will have the right to refer such to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS).
The legislative transition will however not impact staff of ECESWA in any way as it states, “the employees of the existing Examinations Council of Eswatini employed before the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to be employees of the Council. Any assets, liabilities and obligations of ECESWA acquired before the commencement of this act shall be transferred to and vested in the Council.”
The Registrar will be employed on a three-year contract which will be renewable based on performance.
The Council shall continue to be responsible for arranging and controlling assessment and examination for primary school level junior secondary level and senior secondary level and any other approved examinations.
However, the work of the Council may be shortened in the near future as government is mulling to scrap out one of the external examinations either in JC or primary certificate. Cases of malpractice have been reported in many schools wherein examination papers are leaked, supposedly by teachers before the examination. In one case in the Lubombo Region, it was gathered that an invigilator played a hand in that, he had share answers to pupils.
However, the anomaly was picked by makers, after which an investigation ensued. The invigilator was criminally charged and several pupils had to sit for the examination again the following year.