Mary Papayya

Mary Papayya

Teachers' unions in KwaZulu-Natal appealed to education officials in the province to take stern action against "corrupt elements" responsible for failing to enter data that has led to hundreds of matriculants not receiving their results.

South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) spokes-man KK Nkosi said yesterday the department owed it to "the pupils to make sure such elements were dealt with".

"We call on the education department to note the mistakes made by teachers who did not provide school-based assessments so that the results process could be complete," Nkosi said. "We ask that the matter be investigated and that corrupt elements rooted out."

Matric results in the province were down on previous years, which officials attributed to the new outcomes-based education.

According to Sadtu the department should "learn from last year's mistakes".

"We expect the department to make sure teachers receive proper training in the new system and that the department monitor progress regularly. We hope the newly appointed subject advisers, expected to be deployed at all schools, will assist in the process."

Nkosi said parents should pay the fees and should have a say in the running of their schools.

The National Teachers Union said a key priority for the department was to ensure all examiners for the supplementary exams were properly compensated.

"This will alleviate problems as experienced in the outstanding matric results saga. It is also important to investigate what went wrong."

Spokesman Alan Thompson also encouraged the department to allow failed pupils who did not qualify for supplementary exams to return as "matric repeaters".

"The department must set aside a budget to allow for these pupils to go back to school. Sending them to FET colleges is not the answer."

The provincial education department said officials were working around the clock to complete the results.

Results had been issued to "an overwhelming majority of learners in the province", it said.

Education superintendent-general Cassius Lubisi said: "There are a few schools and centres the results of which are still outstanding due to continuing verification of school-based assessments.

"This is crucial to the quality assurance of the examination system."

He said "technical and serious irregularities" had been identified and were being resolved.

Pupils who had not received their results would be interviewed this week and the department hoped to produce their results by the middle of the month, he said.