Fifty former matric learners from Baphutheng Senior Secondary School in Limpopo are heading to the High Court in Polokwane this week after their 2024 National Senior Certificate results were withheld following findings of “group copying”.
In a statement, SECTION27 says it will represent the former learners when the matter is heard in the Limpopo Division of the High Court on Wednesday, September 23.
The learners are challenging decisions by the former Acting Head of Department of the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) and the Limpopo MEC for Education, who found them guilty of group copying in Business Studies Paper 1 and Economics Paper 2.
The findings were based on similarities identified in the learners’ examination answers.
However, the learners have consistently denied cheating and say the similarities in their answers were linked to the teaching methods used at the under-resourced school.
According to SECTION27, the learners had limited access to textbooks and other learning and teaching materials.
To compensate for the lack of resources, educators used methods including singing, group repetition and recitation to help learners memorise concepts and essay structures.
SECTION27 said there was no direct evidence that the learners copied from one another during the examinations.
The organisation also said educators, invigilators and the school principal at the time were not questioned about the similarities in the examination scripts before findings were made against the learners.
Instead, the department relied on the similarities in the scripts in reaching its conclusions.
The dispute has now entered the courts after the Limpopo Department of Education acknowledged that the disciplinary process followed against the learners was procedurally unlawful.
Despite this acknowledgement, the department is seeking a new disciplinary hearing rather than releasing the learners’ examination results.
SECTION27 argues that sending the learners through another disciplinary process would prolong the harm they have already suffered and place them back before the same department that previously found them guilty through a process it now accepts was unlawful.
The organisation will ask the High Court to set aside the decisions that found the learners guilty of group copying.
It will further ask the court to substitute those findings with decisions declaring the learners not guilty and order the department to release their matric results within five days of the court order.
SECTION27 will also argue that withholding the learners’ results after an unlawful process infringes their constitutional rights to basic and further education, equality and dignity, as well as their freedom of trade, occupation and profession.
The organisation said the consequences of the withheld results have extended beyond the examination process and affected the learners’ education, employment and personal lives.
The 50 former learners have reportedly missed opportunities to study further and find employment while facing the stigma associated with being labelled “cheats”.
SECTION27 said the learners had experienced severe emotional distress as their lives remained on hold.
The organisation said the learners had already lost almost two years as a result of the disciplinary process and should not be required to lose additional time because the department failed to follow a lawful process.
“A new hearing would not undo the harm already suffered; it would prolong it,” SECTION27 said.
The case comes nearly two years after the learners wrote their matric examinations, with their results still unresolved.
At the centre of the court challenge will be whether the department can lawfully subject the learners to another disciplinary hearing after acknowledging that the original process was procedurally unlawful, or whether the findings should be set aside and the results released.
The matter is scheduled to be heard in the Limpopo Division of the High Court in Polokwane on September 23.
