While it was the unsolvable question 5.1 in the Mathematics Paper 2 final matric exams that caused a furore, it was not the only problematic question for the Class of 2022.
The Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi) dealt with question problems in other exam papers administered by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the Independent Education Board (IEB).
Umalusi CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi said the quality assurance body remains concerned about some of the questions that were found problematic in some subjects during this examination cycle.
He shared some examples of questions that were excluded from the marking process because of their problematic nature.
According to Rakometsi the IEB’s National Senior Certificate (NSC) History Paper 2: question 3.4.1 (two marks) referred candidates to find a historical concept in paragraph two instead of paragraph one.
While the IEB’s General Education and Training Certificate English: questions five (a) and five (b) worth four marks required candidates to identify the underlined words and write them in full where no words were underlined.
In addition to the controversial unsolvable Maths paper question, the DBE had other addition boo-boos in the Maths Literary and Sepedi Home Language papers.
“NSC – Mathematical Literacy Paper 2: question 4.2.6 [six marks] erroneously refers candidates to the year 2019 instead of 2020,” Rakometsi said.
“NSC – Sepedi Home Language Paper 2: question 2.5 [two marks] refers to an incorrect word that was used. The wrong word, kgakantšho, instead of kgakantšhano was used.”
He said marking concessions had to be used by the assessment bodies.
“These problematic questions resulted in marking concessions being applied for by the relevant assessment bodies for them to be excluded either entirely or partially from the question papers. Some of the requests for marking concessions were granted whereas others were rejected,” he said.
Professor Yunus Ballim, Umalusi chairperson, presented the finding of the Mathematics Paper 2 question 5.1, which was allocated seven marks.
Ballim said the three-member independent panel which investigated the error in the Maths Paper question found that the error occurred at the last step in the chain of internal and external moderation; and language editing and typesetting processes.
Umalusi has assured pupils, parents and guardians that no candidate was disadvantaged by the errors in the marking of the papers.
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