Pretoria - Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has reiterated his call for the scrapping of the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) and South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) from engaging in the exclusive release of their own matric results.
From the time he was Gauteng Education MEC, Lesufi has been adamant that South Africa doesn’t need two systems, he has been advocating for a single body, saying it will ensure that all pupils are prepared and assessed on the same standard.
In an opinion piece released on Monday, 10 days before the Department of Basic Education releases its matric results, Lesufi said having the same standard will assert the minister’s powers as the ultimate authority in the basic education system.
Lesufi also highlighted the challenges which were faced by the Class of 2022, who also suffered the most from Covid-19.
“In addition to a pandemic-struck environment, load shedding also compounded the challenges of the Class of 2022. To top it off, the error in the Mathematics Paper 2 further complicated the situation for this class.
“Many experts weighed in on this matter, including psychologists, on the possible impact of this error to the performance of learners,” he said.
Lesufi said he hopes that Umalusi has finally made decisions that are in the best interest of learners.
“We have also seen that small assessment bodies, such as IEB and SACAI, received favourable decisions in 2020 compared to the Department of Basic Education (DBE). We will again thoroughly compare these side by side once they become available,” he concluded.
IOL