An Eastern Cape school principal and his head of department have been suspended after allegedly admitting to destroying examination papers of five pupils last year.

The education department said the two had told them that they destroyed the papers to punish the pupils for bunking extra classes in preparation for the final exams.

The school, which is in Port St Johns, is not being named as that would directly name the principal, who could not be contacted at the time of writing on Tuesday. The pupils were in grade 12 and the papers were for technical science.

The incident came to light after markers picked up that the names of the affected pupils were scratched off the register. Upon investigation, it transpired that the parcel containing the scripts had the number (of the scripts) changed from 31 to 26, provincial department of education superintendent-general Temba Kojana told the Dispatch on Tuesday.

He said the conduct of the teachers was unacceptable.

One of the pupils, Mzuvukile Majali, told the Dispatch of his shock when the principal allegedly told him that his paper had been lost in Bhisho.