Department of Higher Education and Training

1. Department of Higher Education and Training Chief Directorate: NEA Principals of Private colleges EWC – BOKSBURG CAMPUS 28 May 2019

2. COMPLIANCE – EXAMINATIN CONDUCT ISSUES CD - NEA Mrs Tshetlo – TVET BRANCH

4. Macro instrument –elements of good examination system

5. The examination cycle

6. Conduct credible examinations • Develop high quality national question papers for the Report 190/1 and NC(V) and GETC examinations in all subjects. • Monitor, support and co-ordinate the administration of a credible examination across all Colleges. • Facilitate the implementation of high quality and standardised marking across marking centres • Establish and maintain rigorous moderation systems for Site-Based Assessment across all colleges • The end product for all examination processes must be to deliver the results of the students on time • Ensure that certificates for eligible students are released three months after the release date

7. Progress made • The members of National Examination Irregularities Committee have been appointed by the DG and Minister of Higher Education in accordance with the Policy on the Conduct, Management, and Administration Report 190/0 and NC(V). • The new Regulations have been developed to strengthened the credibility of the examination and have been endorsed by the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. • The question papers are printed, packaged and distributed to examination centres on time • The national examination committee and Irregularity committee have been established to manage the GETC examinations • The leakage of question papers have been eliminated since the conduct April 2019 examinations to date • The CD:NEA has intervened in the reduction of the certification backlog and more students are receiving certificates due to the combination functionality that has been developed by SITA

8. Policies and Regulations • The Continuing Education and Training Act of 2006 empowers the Minister to establish directives and standards in the management of curriculum and examination • The CET Act of 2006 empowers the Minister of Higher Education and Training to develop the Regulations Pertaining to the Conduct, Management and Administration of Assessment for the Nated Report 190/191 and NC(V). • Regulations Pertaining to Conduct, Management and Administration of Assessment for NC(V) AND Report 190/1 has been drafted and edited • These regulations have been endorsed by the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and the DHET is in the process of developing a Government Gazette for public comments • The Examination Policy Task team comprising of deputy principals, principals and regional directors and regional managers has been established. • Members on this committee have already been consulted on the regulations

9. Policies and Regulations • According to the transitional arrangement in the CET Act, the Policies on the Conduct, Management and Administration of Assessment for the Report 190/1 of 2001 and NC(V) of 2007 are still in forced until they have been repealed. • Therefore the conduct of the TVET college examination is legal even though some of aspects of this policy are outdated.

10. Registration of private examination centres and contracts Dr Myburgh

11. Registration of examination centres • Private colleges will only register candidates for the examinations for which Umalusi and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) respectively accredited them. • The registration of an examination centre will be subject to the following criteria: • Registration of the examination centre as an educational institution and accreditation by Umalusi and the QCTO • Suitable venue to accommodate candidates, for example, sufficient space and appropriate furniture to seat candidates • Security of the venue • Clearance in terms of the local health and fire services by-laws • Provision of proper lighting • Availability of water and ablution facilities • Suitably qualified staff for training as invigilators • Availability of a strong room or safe for the safekeeping of examination material • Should the centre/institution/venue be approved as an examination centre, the Department of Higher Education and Training will issue a centre number to the centre/institution/venue and will inform the manager of the centre/venue/institution accordingly. • The Department of Higher Education and Training will review the registration of examination centres every three years, and will review the registration of part-time and private centres annually.

12. Registration of examination Centres • Department of Higher Education and Training retains the right to monitor at any time without forewarning ( to appoint a Monitoring Invigilator) • Private centre commits itself to abide by all Policies and Regulations. Should there be clear evidence: • that the examination centre provided question papers in their care of the centre to persons for perusal before the examination and other related irregularities • that examination centre will be closed and the guilty parties prosecuted. • Should developments at the private centre affect the integrity of the examination the Department retains the right to take control, which include among others, deploying permanent monitoring invigilators • The owner or management of the centre will be asked to furnish reasons why the centre should not be closed. • Department may deregister a private centre, however, DHET will consider representations the affect private colleges and take a final decision to close or not close the centre in the best interests of the integrity of the examination

13. Registration of Examination Centres All examination centres will be required to operate on premises the Department approved by the Department No examination centre may consider relocation within or less than sixty (60) days before the examination When relocation of a private centre the Director-General of Department must be informed Candidates and their parents or guardians must be informed. Proper notices are affixed at the old centre and such information is published printed/electronic media. Centre will be forced to seek registration at the new premises

14. Procedure when a centre relocates May allow the centre to continue operating for the current final exit examination year only Should this process run over the year-end, no new candidates may be registered Department should be notified timeously of the institution's intention to relocate. Department shall inform the chief invigilator in writing what procedures to be followed If the application is unsuccessful, the Department will inform the head of the institution that the registration of the centre has elapsed. The head of the institution will have the right to respond to the decision and furnish reasons why the centre should not be deregistered. The Department will consider such representation before making a final decision.

15. Reason for deregistration of an examination centre • An examination centre will be deregistered in the event of any misrepresentation of information in the application for examination status discovered after approval of the application. • Undermining the integrity of the examinations or related assessment processes by engaging in • flouting the Department's examination regulations and instructions. • maladministration that impacts on the examination • Intentionally or unintentionally permitting any act(s) which undermine the credibility of examinations to occur. • Examples of such acts are permitting “ghost writers” or of collusion between invigilators and candidates or violating any other requirement as stipulated in policy.

16. Procedure of dealing with irregular practices at examination centres The irregularity committee will investigate all suspected irregularities If clear evidence emerges from investigations by the irregularity committee, disciplinary actions will be instituted and steps taken to de – register the examination centre. The head of the institution/ centre managers/principal will be informed, in writing, of the intention of the Director General to de - register the examination centre due to the incidence of irregularities. The institution/ centre managers/principal may be asked to furnish a motivation why the centre should not be de – registered. In the event the private examination centre is to be deregistered as an examination centre for whatever reason, the Department will follow processes as specified in the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000 (PAJA)

17. Monitoring In order to protect the credibility of the examination and enhance public confidence in the system the Regional manager will perform the following duties: • Monitor the conduct of examination processes including the delivery of question papers, distribution of papers at nodal points and storage of question papers in the strong room, ensure that each college has strong rooms and CCTV • Regional manager must lead a delegation to visit colleges and selected campuses to audit the aspects of the readiness of each college to conduct credible examinations • Regional Manager must establish regional structures such as: Examination Irregularities Committee and Assessment Committee to facilitate compliance with the regulations and policies governing the conduct of examination and internal Assessment (ICASS and ISAT) • Some of the structures can be chaired by College-based officials at the level of the principal

18. Monitoring • Regional manager should monitor private colleges in the region and ensure that they do not undermine the credibility of examination • Regional managers must ensure that there is no leakage of question papers in the regions • Regions will be judged based on a dashboard in respect of their compliance with examination and assessment policies • Major shortcomings of the colleges include the management of ICASS, capturing of ICASS marks and presenting evidence of marks, changing of captured marks and these activities undermine the credibility of examination • The DHET will conduct an audit of the capturing of marks for colleges that are deemed to serial offenders for a period until they have proven to have the capacity to capture marks accurately.

19. State of Readiness visit • DHET will conduct a state of readiness monitoring with special focus on private colleges. • The monitoring will be a joint visit between the regional and DHET officials to audit examination process and ascertain the readiness of the colleges to run credible examinations. • The audit will include, amongst others: • the registration, • delivery of question papers to private colleges, • Submission of scripts by the private colleges • Appointment of invigilators and attendance of invigilation workshops by chief invigilators, • Adherence to the management plans in respect of the submission of ICASS marks and marks for internal marking done at college level • Handling of serious irregularities which include leakage of papers, fraud and other malpractices • A report will be compiled on the findings of the audit and feedback will be provided to private colleges to improve. • Private colleges will be required to develop an improvement plan and implement it in order to enhance the credibility of examinations.

21. Appointment of the Chief Invigilator • The Regional Manager or his or her nominee will appoint the principal or manager of an institution as Chief Invigilator in accordance with the requirements of the Department of Higher Education and Training. • The regions may appoint any competent college lecturer or office-based educator as Chief Invigilator. • Chief Invigilators will be trained by the Region/Department of Higher Education and Training before the commencement of the examinations. • The Chief Invigilator may delegate his or her power in writing to the Deputy Chief Invigilator if he or she cannot fulfil his or her duties. • The Chief Invigilator will inform the region/Department of Higher Education and Training in writing of this delegation. • The Chief Invigilator will have a thorough knowledge of the procedures, rules and regulations regarding the examinations.

22. Appointment of the Chief Invigilator • Invigilators will be appointed in writing before the commencement of the examination. Chief Invigilators may appoint invigilators will inform the region/Department of Higher Education and Training of all appointments. • The Chief Invigilator may under no circumstances appoint lecturers to invigilate or even to relieve other invigilators if candidates write the subject these lecturers teach. However, computer and drawing related subjects will be exempt from this requirement. • Relief invigilators may be appointed for sessions of two (2) hours or longer. The relief may be for a maximum period of twenty (20) minutes during the session. • No person will be eligible for appointment as an Invigilator or Assistant Invigilator if a near relative (son, daughter, brother or sister) sits for a specific examination session. • Where the need exists, the Chief Invigilator may appoint private invigilators to assist with invigilation. Private invigilators will be trustworthy and honest, and preferably community leaders. • No students or lecturer who study at a campus may be appointed as an invigilator at that Campus

23. Chief Invigilator • The Chief Invigilator will draw up a seating plan, indicating the examination room(s) with the desk arrangement and the examination numbers of candidates, and will submit this to the Regional Offices Departments for each examination question paper written. • Should the Chief Invigilator prefer to combine groups in one hall/room, he or she will reflect this arrangement on the seating plan. • The Chief Invigilator will ensure that no unauthorised person is present in and around the assessment room(s). • The Chief Invigilator will ensure that the Invigilators complete the absent/present column on the mark sheets correctly. • The Chief Invigilator will provide relief invigilation at examination centres. • The Chief Invigilator will ensure that scripts are properly batched and packed according to the candidates' examination numbers at the end of the session. The mark sheet belonging to a certain batch of scripts will be included in that batch.

24. Chief Invigilator • The Chief Invigilator will be responsible for collecting the answer scripts or delivering the answer the scripts to the Examination Centre for marking. • Chief Invigilators will ensure that all equipment (e.g. computers, printers, drawing boards, etc.) to be used by candidates is serviced timeously, is in perfect working condition and is available at the examination venue on the day of the examination. • The Chief invigilator will submit written reports on all alleged and other cases of irregularities without delay to the Department of Higher Education and Training on a daily basis

25. Monitoring • The main function of monitoring will be to ensure that assessment is fair, valid and reliable and complies with directives issued by The Department of Higher Education and Training and Umalusi • All Regional Offices will establish a structure to monitor examinations of the National Certificate (Vocational) and Nated Report 190/191. • Monitoring will cover all stages of the examination, commencing with the preparatory phase and concluding with the release of the results. • The monitoring team will visit examination centres while the examination is in progress and will report on, amongst others, the following: • Security • General management of the examination • Invigilation • Condition of examination rooms • Identification of candidates • Seating of candidates • Ten (10) minutes reading time • Return of examination answer scripts

26. Monitoring • Regional managers or directors should be appointed as regional monitors to oversee the conduct of examination in each region • The regional manager or his or her nominee will be appointed by the Director-General or his or her nominee to become the monitor for the regions • The regional manager will be delegated the responsibility by the Director-General to appoint campus managers as chief invigilators • The regional managers will be entrusted with the responsibility to conduct training of invigilators (Regulations needs to accommodate this practice) • Regional Manager must appoint delivery managers, train them and ensure that the delivery of question papers is compromised • Retired examination officials will be appointed and trained to conduct rigorous monitoring of the public and private centres, distribution points.

27. Management of Irregularities Mr L Sinclair

32. Other Registration, SOR and Examination Issues The following practices have been detected in the course of the past three years and despite numerous training interventions provided by DHET, the practices still exist: • The Centre Number for one site is being used at other sites (which is not permitted) and in most cases, at non-accredited sites • Generally, it is found that once an exam centre is registered, it does not maintain all requirements as per the Registration Instrument on an ongoing basis e.g. proper, safe furniture and equipment – computers are not functioning effectively, etc. • Many Colleges are offering other subjects/courses for which they are not accredited nor registered for; for example, If they have accreditation for N1-N3, they will illegally offer N4-N6 as well and vice versa. • A number of Colleges do not regularly update the DHET about any changes to Staff Establishment, emails and telephone numbers; thus colleges do not get updated information or correspondence from DHET.

33. Other registration, SOR and Examination Issues • Colleges apply for Concessions a day or two before or on the day of the examinations in spite of instructions given at Training sessions and in the Exam Conduct Guidelines • Colleges found with shortcomings, do not send proof of these being rectified even though they are given time to rectify these shortcomings and even though reminders are sent to them • Some colleges do not attend the examination training – (stating they did not receive notification – because contact details at DHET are not updated) • In some colleges, training of all invigilators by the Chief Invigilator is not being conducted prior to EVERY examinations (no proof of training, minutes, attendance registers and appointment letters kept)

34. Other registration, SOR and Examination Issues • Colleges are allowing question papers and answer books to be removed from the examination venue during the examination session • Computer examinations: some colleges are not saving students work externally after an exam and clearing the computer of all work before and after each session

35. ICASS Irregularities • The exposition on internal assessment (ICASS) irregularities has taken consideration of the conduct of Engineering Studies examinations in private colleges only over three cycles, viz: • August 2018 • November 2018, and • April 2019 • In the main, ICASS irregularities will deal with non-submission of ICASS evidence and failure to comply with ICASS requirements • During the monitoring and moderation of ICASS conducted by both DHET and Umalusi, some ICASS irregularities have been detected: • Tendency or inclination to manufacture ICASS evidence (during verification of ICASS for November 2018, it was discovered at three private colleges that candidates’ identity numbers have been rubbed-off with Tipp-Ex and replaced by identity numbers of other candidates • At one college, ICASS scripts for some candidates were half-marked and for another candidate tasks are not marked

37. ICASS Irregularities • The non-submission of ICASS or the submission of insufficient evidence has affected 2773 candidates in private colleges over the last three Engineering Studies examinations • This situation can be avoided if private colleges honour requests to submit and submit adequate evidence as required • The presentation on examination irregularities seeks to highlight trends associated with the conduct of examinations in private centres

38. Examination Irregularities • There is occurrence of various technical irregularities and irregularities associated with acts of dishonesty • However, there are several irregularities associated with various private colleges which are a huge concern • In addition, the presentation will show that there seems to be a relationship between the number of private colleges a particular examination cycle and the number of irregularities in that cycle

40. Examination Irregularities • It can be observed from previous slide that there was a high number of irregularities for August 2018, both in terms of total number of all irregularities and irregularities associated with private colleges only • In addition to this observation, attention can be drawn to the fact that the number of private colleges conducting examinations in a particular cycle seems to relate to the number of irregularities associated with private colleges in that cycle • For instance, the number of irregularities in 113 private colleges was the lowest at 540, which translates to 65% of all irregularities during November 2018.

41. Examination Irregularities • This number increased to 1521 (77%) of all irregularities during April 2019, meaning irregularities in private colleges increased by 981! • This is a trend worth watching and tracking so that if needs be, some far-reaching decisions will have to be taken in relation to the registration of private colleges • Another trend worth mentioning is the rising number of irregularities associated with copying, candidates helping one another and missing scripts. • These increasing numbers suggest that there could be collision between invigilators and candidates whereby invigilators are “convinced” to look the other way

42. Examination Irregularities • In fact, DHET has over the years received information that some lecturers get paid by candidates to help them gain unfair advantage over others during examinations • When this is followed-up, DHET is always informed that the lecturer has resigned or has been dismissed

44. Examination Irregularities • The DHET has over the years also received information from various sources about certain irregularities happening in private colleges. • For instance, DHET was informed that at one college here in Gauteng, the Principal or Campus Manager writes examinations for candidates at the college • When a DHET monitor was sent to monitor the college, suddenly candidates did not attend the college to write on those days • During the conduct of the August 2018, the marking personnel was able to detect several cases: • instances where other people wrote examinations on behalf of candidates • and these candidates were found guilty and suspended from DHET examinations

45. Examination Irregularities • Further analysis of data from the 3 examination cycles seem to indicate that some private colleges will have: • 0-10 irregularities, • while others would have irregularities ranging from 11-49, • and still others would have irregularities from 50-150 • The worst case identified in this instance is a college which had 154 irregularities in the August 2018 examination sitting, • and these irregularities comprised 139 acts of dishonesty • 15 technical irregularities

46. Examination Irregularities • It is evident that if so many irregularities occur in one college in one sitting, then this adequate evidence of poor invigilation and other examination procedures at such colleges. • Intervention measures have to be implemented to curb such occurrences • In the following slide, information is shared indicating the number of private colleges which fall in three categories based on the past three examination cycles • 0-10 irregularities (low risk), • 11-49 (medium) • and 50+ (high) • DHET also has names of affected colleges, but these will not be revealed at this stage and the categorisation is subject to change depending on irregularities

47. Examination Irregularities

48. Printing, Packing and Distribution • Some private colleges register candidates late and this impacts on the provision of question papers • If enrolments are late, the cut-off data files time-frames are not adhered to, resulting in requests for the DHET to email question papers, and this is in itself very risky • The table below indicates the number of private colleges requesting electronic versions of question papers and the number of actual emails by the Department to private colleges

49. Printing, Packing and DistributionRecorded requests and resulting emails during the examination cycles

50. Recommendations • Private colleges must adhere to the DHET requirements for operating as educational and assessment centres. • These requirements were stipulated when private colleges first sought agreement to be registered: • Valid OHS and Fire Compliance Certificates, • availability of valid Lease Agreements, • valid accreditation, sufficient resources and furniture to operate as an educational institution, etc) • Training on the management of assessment and examination procedures has to be intensified and must target centres found to be non-compliant • If a college is found to be non-compliant in many respects and despite interventions provided does not improve, a process has to be initiated and put in place to revoke the centre number of that college and possibly de-registration of the centre as an educational institution