Teachers implicating in the matric cheating should not get amnesty as the Department of Education intends to do, and instead be punished for committing fraud, said the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Sunday.
“Their actions showed contempt for the quality of education their learners received, and disdain for the consequences that might be suffered by the learners involved – who might well have been suspended from writing matric for 3 years,” said the DA’s Annette Lovemore.
“Everyone of the teachers involved in committing fraud, and who caused their learners to commit fraud, by presenting exam answers that were supposed to be compiled by their learners, should be held accountable.”
Nearly 50 schools in South Africa have been implicating in mass cheating, with around 1000 pupils implicated in cheating by education watchdog Umalusi. Most of the cheating occurred in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
It’s been reported the Education Department will provide full indemnity to the teachers who helped learners cheat if they confess. The department has denied this allegation however:
“We never said that, so the DA is wasting everyone’s time now. Everyone is going to be prosecuted according to the regulations and those who are found guilty will be dealt with severely and in fact we expect that those who contest the charges because we have serious evidence against them, we will call for maximum punishment for them,” spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga told Eyewitness News.
According to the Employment of Educators Act, teachers must be dismissed if they are found guilty of theft, bribery, fraud or an act of corruption in regard to examinations or promotional reports.
Lovemore said the DA would write to Education Minister Angie Motshekga to urge her to apply the law and punish teachers implicated in the cheating scandal.
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