5 PHUMELELE TEACHERS DISMISSED FOR EXAM PAPERS LEAK

ETENI – The services of five Phumelele International School teachers, who had a hand in the leakage of Form V examination papers, have been terminated.

The Director of Phumelele International School, Sabelo Mavuso, made this revelation during a meeting with parents yesterday. He said the former teachers were accused of leaking examination papers, and the school dismissed them from their positions. The school now goes by the name Cebisa Christian Academy, following a partnership of the school’s director with a South African private school, Starlight Academy, last year.

The report on the dismissal of the implicated teachers came after a long period of uncertainty and frustration for parents, who had attempted to get answers from the Ministry of Education and Training, Examinations Council of Eswatini (ECESWA) and the school, regarding the disqualification of the Eswatini General Certificate of Secondary Education (EGCSE) results for over 130 pupils last year.

Frustration

Parents had expressed concern and frustration over the lack of transparency and communication from the school and the relevant authorities, and they were relieved to finally get an explanation on the situation. The Eteni-based private school was investigated for alleged malpractice, following the leak of some of the components of the examination papers. According to the summary results from the ECESWA, Phumelele International School attained a 58.54 per cent pass rate. Over 130 candidates reportedly sat the examination at the school.

When addressing the teachers, Mavuso first explained that he had been in the business of operating a private school for over 20 years, and had always made it his mission to strive for excellence. He said he worked his way up through producing quality results, and this was through roping in experts from other schools and institutions. He revisited an instance, where in one particular year, pupils at his school performed exceptionally well. Mavuso said to motivate his employees, he bought luxurious cars and requested them to maintain the high standard.

He said he was against interchanging employees, because it affected the learners. Mavuso told the parents that he purchased a VW Golf and Mercedes Benz for some of the teachers. He said he rarely spent time at the school as he worked in South Africa full-time. When explaining how he first received the news of the school being involved in malpractice, Mavuso said he was at home, in the kingdom, when he received a call from one of the teachers, who requested to see him.

Investigated

According to the director, three teachers paid him a visit and informed him that his school was among those that were being investigated for malpractice. “I asked them to explain what happened, but no one provided an answer. On the following day, on a Tuesday, I was at the school at around 7am, when I read the news in the newspaper about the matter,” he said.

The director narrated that he went to one of the teachers, who he found with another, to seek clarity on the issue. He said he learnt that a particular teacher took questions and shared them with another teacher elsewhere, after having conducted studying sessions with Phumelele pupils. On the same day, he said he was approached by ECESWA officers, who summoned them to their offices.

“When we got there, we were told that our school was involved in the leaking of an exam paper and it was suspected that the person was using their handwriting to copy the questions onto a paper and then send it to others,” he disclosed.

Copied

Mavuso went on to state that he learnt that there was a teacher who copied about 12 questions and leaked them. To his dismay, he explained, he asked the teachers if they were aware of the predicament they had put the school in, adding that not only parents would be affected, but the pupils as well. According to the director, he is the one who is answerable.

On another note, Mavuso denied reports that the council simultaneously gave the school a letter and results on the same day.  “It is not true that they gave us a letter and results. We sat and they explained the disciplinary measures they had to take. I then attached the letter and wrote a report, stating that after the investigation, five people were investigated by police and we fired them as a school,” he said.

He assured parents that he wrote the letters and the copies of the letters were with the ministry. Meanwhile, Mavuso revealed that one of the five teachers admitted verbally that there was information he had regarding the matter, while the other was found to have taken a picture of the questions and leaked them to someone at Mahlabatsini.

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