Relief as battle to clear name is won
AFTER a week of battling matric cheating allegations, Fundinduku Secondary School pupils and officials breathed a huge sigh of relief when they were cleared by the KwaZuluNatal department of education.
The school was among those identified last week on suspicion of cheating in maths, economics and business studies.
Thirty-nine schools were implicated in KwaZulu-Natal and 19 in the Eastern Cape.
Bantubonke Makhathini, chairman of the school governing body, said he was still fielding questions from community members this week about whether the school would shut down, despite it being cleared.
“People tell me it will close, but I tell them there is no school that will close, this school is functioning,” said Makhathini.
He said he believed the allegations originated with “people who want to bring down the school”. The school had a 53.4% pass rate in last year’s exams.
“The school has no issues. As governing body chairman of the school, living in the area, I have not seen anything untoward. It is just people with their own agendas wanting to bring the school into disrepute.
“I was at the school myself during some of the exams. I was even warned not to make a noise and disturb the pupils. There were invigilators supervising,” said Makhathini.
Sanele Ndimande, 18, who passed and will be studying engineering at the Durban University of Technology, said pupils had been shocked and hurt by the allegations.
Fundinduku Secondary consists of three simple singlestorey buildings. It caters for 540 pupils. KwaZulu-Natal education department spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said the department had no intention of shutting down the school and that no irregularities had been found.
The 73 candidates who sat exams at the school last year received their results on Tuesday. Thirty-nine of them had passed.