Minister Siviwe Gwarube confirms the detection of a leak in the 2025 NSC exams, assuring the public that the issue is confined to a few learners, with rigorous investigations ensuring the exams’ credibility remains intact. Minister of Basic Education,Siviwe Gwarube, confirmed on Thursday that a Department of Basic Education (DBE) employee is implicated in a leak ofNational Senior Certificate(NSC) exam papers. Gwarube said the leak involved seven exam papers, which were accessed by learners in seven schools in Pretoria ahead of the scheduled exams.
In a media briefing on Thursday, Gwarube detailed how the breach was detected and addressed through the department’s stringent security protocols. She emphasised that the incident, while concerning, was an isolated event and that the department’s robust systems had functioned as intended to identify and contain the breach. “Our system has worked exactly as it was designed to do: to detect, isolate, investigate, and address any manipulation of the NSC examinations,” Gwarube said.
The breach was first flagged on December 2, when markers in Gauteng noticed an unusual similarity between a candidate’s answers and the official marking guidelines for English Home Language Paper 2. This triggered a deeper investigation, revealing that several key exam papers, including English Home Language Papers 1, 2, and 3, Mathematics Papers 1 and 2, and Physical Science Papers 1 and 2, were accessed prior to the exam date. These papers had been circulated via a USB storage device, she said.
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Gwarube confirmed that the source of the leak was traced to the DBE’s own offices, where the exam papers were set. The suspected employee, who had access to the materials, allegedly shared them with another DBE staff member working in the examination unit, she said. “The breach occurred within the DBE offices.
Of the 162 papers set for the 2025 NSC exams, seven were accessed before the examination date,” she said. While the breach was localised to a specific area in Pretoria, Gwarube said that there was no evidence to suggest it had spread beyond these seven schools.
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