Matriculants sitting for the 2022 final examinations were outraged when they were faced with an unsolvable math problem in the second mathematic paper two weeks ago.
Umalusi, the Quality Council for General and Further Education and Training, said in a statement on Monday that it has since established a three-member independent panel to investigate the reasons that led to the inclusion of the “problematic” question.
The three-member panel, which is chaired by Penelope Vinjevold, comprises professor Sudan Hansraj and professor Nic Heideman.
The National Senior Certificate paper was written on November 7.
Umalusi said the panel was specifically tasked to investigate how the error crept in and why it was not detected between the examiners, internal and external moderators up to the printing stage.
Umalusi spokesperson Biki Lepota said: “In other words, the focus is on the entire value chain, all the processes that the question paper was subjected to during the stages of its development, quality assurance and printing,” said Lepota.
“The report will be shared publicly on 16 January 2023 during the media briefing on the approval of the release of the 2022 examination results of the different assessment bodies.”
Umalusi CEO, Dr Mafu Rakometsi, said the investigation will in no way delay the release of matric results.
“As per the approved schedule, the results will be approved on 16 January 2023 by the executive committee of Umalusi council and the minister of basic education will release the results to the public on 19 January 2023,” he said.
“Secondly, he said Umalusi wants to reassure the public that it will do everything humanly possible to ensure that no candidate is disadvantaged by the error in question 5.1.”
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