NATIONAL NEWS - Naptosa (National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa) believes that the decision to order a national rewrite of the two matric papers that had been leaked is an overreaction.
Executive director of Naptosa Basil Manuel commented on the announcement made on Friday 4 December, saying the term “viral”, used by the investigation task team, conjures up the belief that the papers were splashed all over social media. “But we have not seen evidence that this was in fact the case.”
The Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga said on Friday that the decision was made by the Council of Education Ministers (CEM), due to the extent of the leakage of mathematics paper 2 and physical science paper 2. The papers will be rewritten on 15 and 17 December 2020, respectively.
Manuel says they would have been comfortable with rewrites being ordered in those schools where the task team had definite evidence that pupils had been in possession of the papers. “But to place additional pressure on the thousands of matriculants who had nothing to do with the leaked papers, in a year they had to endure so many obstacles and hardships, is just indefensible,” he says.
Naptosa does however support the view that the National Senior Certificate needs to be protected and applaud the Hawks for already having made an arrest.
