Addressing the matter, she stated, “Our systems worked exactly as they were designed to do: to detect, isolate, investigate and address any manipulation of the NSC exams.” The disclosure followed the detection of irregularities by trained markers during the marking of English home language paper 2, which triggered protocols and a preliminary investigation. The department of basic education has verified that the breach originated within its own offices, where question papers are set. Investigations established that three subjects — English home language, mathematics, and physical sciences — were accessed prior to the examination and distributed via a USB storage device.
The spread has thus far been confined to seven schools in Pretoria, with 26 learners interviewed and admitting prior access to the compromised papers. Officials implicated in the breach have been suspended and the matter has been referred to the police for criminal investigation, including charges relating to the unlawful possession of state property. Gwarube announced the establishment of a national investigative task team, mandated to confirm the source of the breach, verify its scope, identify affected learners and recommend measures to safeguard the credibility of the 2025 National Senior Certificate.
The task team will include an independent chair, representatives from Umalusi, Universities South Africa, teacher unions, SAQA, department of basic education officials and a private forensic investigator. Its preliminary report is due to the National Examination Irregularities Committee on December 29, with a final report to the minister and Umalusi on December 31. The department has emphasised that no results have yet been finalised and no certification processes have commenced.
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Umalusi has been formally notified and will oversee quality assurance. Gwarube reiterated that the incident was limited and did not constitute systemic failure, adding, “Even though we mark around 11-million scripts, our systems can detect breaches of the nature outlined here this morning.” The minister underscored that the detection was possible because of South Africa’s multi‑layered marking system. Scripts are assessed by expert markers under strict guidelines, with moderation and tolerance checks applied across subjects.
It was this process that allowed markers to identify responses that mirrored marking guidelines rather than authentic learner work. Once flagged, the anomaly was escalated through five layers of quality assurance, confirming the breach and isolating the affected scripts. According to the department, the breach was confined to a cluster of schools in Pretoria and did not spread nationally. The investigation has shown that the compromised papers were circulated in a limited network, and the irregularities were detected precisely because markers are trained to distinguish genuine learner responses from memorised or unauthorised material.
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