Matric cheats from 2014 get second chance

SINDI Phungula believes it will be second time lucky for her this year.

The 21-year-old pupil at Mpikayizekanye Secondary School in Msinga in KwaZuluNatal is one of 160 matrics at the school who were impli- cated in last year’s cheating scandal.

“I am very happy that I got a chance to rewrite matric exams. I am very hopeful that I will pass and that I will get my results this time around,” said Phungula on Friday.

Matrics finish their final exams next week.

Mpikayizekanye Secondary’s matric results were all nullified after an investigation by the Department of Basic Education found that there was “clear evidence” of cheating.

While some pupils at other schools were cleared and their results released, none of the pupils at Mpikayizekanye were exonerated, although only four confessed to cheating.

A total of 36 schools were implicated in the group-copying scandal, 22 of them in KwaZulu-Natal and 14 in the Eastern Cape.

In the Eastern Cape, disciplinary hearings have been concluded for seven of the schools. Pupils had their results nullified but they were allowed to write the national senior certificate exam this year.

But the remaining seven schools have taken the department to court. The case was set down for October 22 but was removed from the roll.

Elijah Mhlanga, spokesman for the Department of Basic Education, said no new trial date had been allocated and the department was defending the case.

“These pupils are requesting that their results be released without due process being followed,” he said.

He said the Eastern Cape education department was proceeding with disciplinary hearings for the teachers.

Disciplinary hearings for the implicated pupils were also continuing.

In KwaZulu-Natal, hearings had been concluded in 11 schools where results were nullified and pupils had been allowed to write their final exams.

Mhlanga said that in the case of the other KwaZuluNatal schools, arrangements for the hearings had been made, but on the day they were supposed to begin, proceedings were disrupted by protesting pupils.

“In cases where pupils were represented by lawyers, they raised objections to certain procedural matters.

“However, the department, despite these intended disruptions, has rescheduled these hearings and they will take place in the next two weeks,” said Mhlanga.