Cape Town — Umalusi, the education quality assurance board, raised concern over the Department of Basic Education’s shortage of marking staff during exams.
Umalusi CEO, Mafu Rakometsi. said there is a shortage of History, English Home Language and Afrikaans First and Additional Language staff, and said the contingency plans that have been put in place were not enough, SABC News reported.
“The appeal we are making is to the employer, and the employers of different heads of provincial departments, they are also called superintendents. To say this matter has been going on several times, it must be corrected. It cannot go on like this,” he said.
“Otherwise it will compromise the integrity of examinations. Contingency measures are appreciated as a stopgap measure, but that is not where we should be as a country,” explains Rakometsi.
@UmalusiSA raises concerns that the @DBE_SA has a shortage of staff across the 9 provinces to administer the National Senior Certificate exams. “However contingency measures are in place”. #NSC2024 pic.twitter.com/XKhggFmH9y
— @DBETVNews (@dbetvnews) October 11, 2024
According to The Citizen, Umalusi, which incorporates four examination bodies – the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the Independent Examination Board (IEB), the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI).
Rakometsi said the staff shortages were a perennial problem and that while it could handle risks, he hoped for better in the future.
“In future, we don’t want stop-gap measures. They’ve got adequate time to plan so that next year there is a full complement,” he said.
In addition, Umalusi said those marking would use a standardised mark-capturing system that will feature a double-entry system, where a marker enters a result before colleagues before it replicates the action.
Rakometsi also made a plea to urge teachers and learners to uphold the honour of the process and declared cheating a criminal offence.
“Please don’t touch the education of our children. It is something that is very delicate. It is close to all of us as South Africans. Not only to the parents of these children but to all of us because it is the future of this country,” he said.
Umalusi CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi has reiterated that “Cheating is a no-go area for any self-respecting candidate. Cheating does not pay.” #NationalExams2024 #MakoyaCertificates #ClassOf2024 pic.twitter.com/sVvmf60ykm
— Umalusi (@UmalusiSA) October 11, 2024
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Picture: X/@UmalusiSA
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
