Setting the record straight on alleged compromise of Mathematics Paper 1 Matric Examinations

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has been alerted to various versions of the Marking guidelines relating to Mathematics Paper 1 that are currently on social media. The DBE wIshes to inform candidates that this should not be construed as a possible compromise of the Mathematics Paper 1 given the following:

1. This paper was written on 27 October, five days ago, and the marking guidelines were released a few hours after the examination was completed as per standard procedure.

2. Chief markers and internal moderators are requested to evaluate the standard of the paper and the marking guidelines and make their inputs based on a sample of scripts that would be marked by them. This is done in preparation for the National Marking Standardisation meeting where the Marking guidelines will be finalised.

3. In addition, teachers also work out the answers to establish the fairness or difficulty of the paper or prepare for marking. It has been noted in a few Provinces that teachers after having developed these Marking guidelines post them on various Social Media platforms where members of the public can access them.

In a few of the versions of the marking guidelines that are being circulated comments are written on the marking guideline confirming that this is part of a discussion document being put together for the marking standardisation meeting.

It is inappropriate for these documents to be publicly available at this stage as marking has not commenced. It should however be noted that the availability of the documents via social media and elsewhere doesn’t constitute a breach.

The department will nevertheless investigate the circumstances leading to the distribution of these documents.

Source: Government of South Africa