Students warned of dire consequences should they get caught cheating during matric exams

The Department of Basic Education has sent a stern warning to learners writing year-end examinations to refrain from attempting to illegally acquire question papers, saying the consequences and penalties could be severe. The 2022 matric exams began last week.

“The penalties, if you are caught in possession of an examination question paper, are too ghastly to contemplate. It is going to ruin your entire future as a student. So, do not even attempt to venture into that direction. To our parents and members of the public, we are dependent on you to be our eyes and ears wherever you are. If you have any information that may appear suspicious, remember our hotline number: 069 335 2818 – and I promise we will respond,” says Chief Director for the Department’s National Assessment and Public Examinations Rufus Poliah.

Protestors to be cognizant of matric exams

The department has appealed for protestors to be considerate of learners writing end-of-year examinations.

“The main concern at the moment is protest action. Learners that have gone through 13 years of learning, waiting anxiously, having prepared thoroughly to write an exam, and then to be faced with the anxiety and tension on the morning of an exam that you might not be able to wrote simply because of an activity or action instigated by members of the community. For possibly each of the last five days, we have had protest action in at least one of the provinces,” adds Poliah.

The Department says despite the continued implementation of rolling blackouts, learners were able to write the year-end Computer Applications Technology (CAT) assessment.

Matric exams will not be affected by load shedding: Motshekga

“Our biggest concern with CAT was the issue of load shedding and I must say there was anxiety on the eve of writing CAT as we were on Stage 4 and CAT requires electricity. That then dropped to Stage 3. I must say, the exam proceeded reasonably well. All our learners were able to write the examination,” adds Poliah.

Poliah has reiterated that learners who experienced rolling blackout-related issues will have the opportunity to rewrite their CAT exam.

“As we mentioned last week, there are only 14 learners from CAT that will have to rewrite the paper because of load shedding. When they switched to the generator, it resulted in a power surge and it damaged the computers that they were using. These are the 14 that will rewrite,” says Poliah.

Basic Education department updates on the Matric Exams progress: