SADTU statement on the rewriting of leaked matric exam papers
5 December 2020
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union(SADTU) is seeking legal action against the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and examinations quality assurer Umalusi over the decision to have all learners who wrote the National Senior Certificate (Matric) mathematics and physical science rewrite because the examination papers were leaked.
The Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga announced on Friday, 4 December that the Mathematics Paper 2 will be written on Tuesday 15 December and Physical Science Paper 2 will be written on Thursday, 17 December 2020. SADTU will, on Monday, file an urgent court application to interdict the Department’s decision.
The Department of Basic Education consulted with the Unions and SADTU and the majority of unions made their views known that they were against the decision and consensus was reached. However, Umalusi did not agree and the decision to rewrite was taken.
SADTU believes the decision to have all learners doing mathematics and physical science rewrite is unfair and premature because the investigation has not been concluded. Based on the initial investigation which has shown that the number of learners who may have seen the paper are less than 200 out of the 390 000 who wrote the paper, there is no basis for a national rewrite.