Marape wants investigation into alleged cheating

ACTING Education Minister James Marape says the restraining order taken out by the Kerowagi Secondary school in Chimbu to stop the printing of Grade 12 certificates over a cheating scandal can be resolved out of court.

In an interview with The National yesterday, Marape said the school’s concern was an administrative matter that could be resolved in a dialogue rather than in court.However, he said he had instructed his department to conduct investigations immediately into the Grade 12 cheating allegations against some schools as it was a serious matter and many students’ future could be jeopardised.Kerowagi, with the help of parent and former magistrate Jeffrey Siki, successfully sought a restraining order to stop the department from printing the school’s certificates.He said the team was given a week from Tuesday to compile and furnish the report which was likely to determine if cheating occurred and how the answer sheets ended up in the schools.He said the boards and administrations from the 11 secondary schools connected to the allegation have also been urged to cooperate and submit their reports on what had transpired in their schools,“It is unfair and immoral to cheat in examinations and I do not encourage cheating.“If the investigations reveal some level of cheating in the schools then, as the minister, I will make sure those students and their schools are blacklisted so they are not selected in any other institution, while corrective measure security of the information are put in place for the future,” Marape said.“I do not condone it, if cheating has taken place. But in terms of selections, recommendations were made to use the internal marks, the internal marks should also be fair.”So far, 150 students from the province have been selected for higher education based on their internal marks.Marape said that it was not the first time such allegation had surfaced.Security of examinations and the answer sheets had been compromised by senior officers within the measurement unit, allowing the answer sheets to be taken out which was a very serious issue, the minister said. The National