Gauteng matric exam leak 'contained' to Pretoria schools, says Gwarube

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube says the recent matric exam leak in Gauteng does not indicate widespread irregularities and is contained to a single, localised area.

'LOCALISED BREACH' DETECTED THROUGH MARKING PROCESS
Minister Gwarube held an urgent media briefing in Parliament on Thursday morning to explain the nature of the leak and detail the interventions taken by her department.

She characterised the incident as a "localised exam breach" that was successfully detected through the department’s "rigorous marking process."

Gwarube explained that exam markers detected the irregularities during the marking of English Paper 2, which immediately triggered an investigation. Markers noticed that learners had provided answers that were "too similar" for one of the questions.

USB DEVICE ALLEGEDLY USED TO SHARE LEAK
The Minister confirmed that the leak was allegedly shared via a USB device and is confined to seven schools in the Pretoria area, with 26 learners implicated.

Gwarube strongly asserted that the incident was not evidence of a systemic failure:

"Our investigations show that this incident was limited to a few individual learners across seven schools in the Pretoria area. There’s no evidence of systemic widespread breaches and as such we don’t expect this to affect the credibility of the National Senior Certificate Examination."

She concluded by stating that Thursday's briefing was not an announcement of a system failure, but rather a demonstration of the "proof of the strength and effectiveness of the marking process."