By SIBONISO NKAMBULE | 2023-11-16

More than 19 000 pupils will be forced to rewrite four Eswatini General Certificate in Secondary Education (EGCSE) subjects – days after they thought they were done with school.

However, they will now have to cut short their holiday and return to their schools after the Examinations Council of Eswatini resolved that they will have to rewrite the Mathematics Paper 3 and 4, Physical Science Paper 2 and 4, Siswati Paper 3 and Religious Education Paper 1 and 2, which were discovered to have been leaked on social media.

celebrating
This decision has left pupils, many of whom had already started celebrating finishing high school, distraught that they will now have to re-take the exams at their respective centres starting from November 27 to 30.

The EGCSE examination started on October 2 and ended on November 9. Examinations Council of Eswatini (ECESWA) Registrar, Dr Mandla Dlamini, described this is as a national disaster, which he said was not their making. Dlamini yesterday gave assurances that they treated cases of malpractice seriously, and in this case, they had already roped in the police to conduct investigations in order to establish the source of the leakage.

The registrar said they launched an intensive investigation as soon as a tip-off was received on the suspected leak.   

He said the affected papers were seen by the pupils prior to sitting for the examination.
The Exams Council preliminary findings showed that the magnitude and extent of the leakage was not contained or confined to a particular centre or region, with a number of candidates country-wide suspected to have received contents of some question papers before the examination was written.    
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To protect the credibility and integrity of the examination, and in full consultation with their quality assurer, Cambridge Assessment International and the ministry of education and training, the Exams Council said it resolved that candidates must re-write examinations involving all the leaked papers.

“We consulted Cambridge International when making this decision and it fully supports it. ECESWA currently has a legally binding contract with Cambridge Assessment International to ensure that all our Cambridge accredited examinations that will lead to the awarding of school leaving certificates always remain credible,” Dlamini said.

He further stated that heads of centres had already been engaged and informed of the re-write of affected components.

“ECESWA appreciates the cooperation and professionalism displayed by the heads of centres in reaching a way forward in dealing with the malpractice,” he said. 

Although the Exams Council accepts that some pupils did not have access to the leaked examination papers, however, to uphold and safeguard fairness in the examination, the re-write then becomes necessary to all candidates.

Against this background, he said they had to act fast to mitigate the situation and to ensure that the integrity of the EGCSE qualification is not compromised.

“All candidates are urged to take heed to this important notice and to embrace the resolution that has been taken on the resit,” he said.

Dlamini mentioned that they were aware of the financial implications of the new developments but parents would not incur any examination fees costs.

“We understand that some candidates come from far way places and that some candidates were utilising boarding facilities and now they have to go back to these places. We urge candidates to return to their centres in order to write the examination.

The only finances parents are expected to pay will be pocket monies or bus fares,” he said. He further appealed for parents’ cooperation and ensure that their children re-write as ECESWA would handle the examination fees.

tough
“We appeal for your assistance in this matter so that your children are able to rewrite the papers. I know it is going to be very tough but it must be done. This is a national disaster which is not our making,” Dlamini stated.

“As we are continuing with the investigations, we cannot speculate to say centre one or school one is responsible until we get the evidence.

We cannot also say the leak came from ECESWA but we are investigating until further notice. Investigations will only stop once the people responsible are found because this created a lot of stress for both parents and children,” he said.

Ministry of Education and Training acting Principal Secretary, Lungelo Nhlengetfwa, said this was not something expected during an examination.

He urged all schools or centres to provide assistance in every way possible so that pupils were able to smoothly write the examination. 

“We understand that some pupils are already in different places for their holidays but we urge parents to assist us, recall the children back home because if they are not going to rewrite, it means that they have already failed,” Nhlengetfwa said.

He further appealed to all stakeholders to cooperate with the investigations so that they could get to the bottom of the matter.

“We expect outcomes in this and we must have people who will face the law,” he said.
Police Information and Communications Officer (PICO) Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that the malpractice case was reported with the police.
She said investigations were ongoing.

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