Cosas wants crib notes

2007-08-27 22:53

Alet Rademeyer

Pretoria - Educationists have described as "unreasonable" a request by the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) to reveal the contents of this year's matric exam papers because so much time was lost during the strike.

Cosas president Kenny Motshegoa asked the Department of Education on Monday to indicate precisely which sections of the work the pupils covered in class would be included in the exam papers, because many schools had not been able to cover the entire syllabus as a result of the strike earlier this year.

"We can't examine pupils on work they didn't do in class".

Professor Jan Haystek, of the education faculty at the University of Stellenbosch, described Cosatu's request as unrealistic and unreasonable.

"The backlogs can't be blamed on the strike alone. While there were definitely teachers who didn't play the game, many pupils also did absolutely nothing during the strike."

- Beeld