The 2022 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams officially kicked off on 31 October 2022, beginning with English Paper One.
This year, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has doubled down on security measures that will be put in place to ensure that a repeat of 2020's exam season will not unfold.
The DBE's Spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga, says for this exam season, they will be working with State security who visited the nine different provinces alongside the Department.
"We [will] work, this time around, with State security who helped us to visit different provinces multiple times to make sure that all provinces comply in terms of storage facilities, but also to demonstrate to officials in the system that we are serious now; we are bringing in law enforcement agencies," said Mhlanga.
The underlying threat of exam papers leaking has always existed, but was particularly heightened after 2020's incident, while the country was still operating under the Covid-19 regulations.
At the time, matric exam papers were leaked in eight of South Africa's provinces.
The two suspects who were alleged to have leaked the National Senior Certificate question paper in December 2020, have been arrested after recently making an appearance at the Johannesburg Magistrates Court in September of this year.
The accused culprits were charged with theft charges in relation to the leaked Maths Paper Two question papers distributed in provinces.
Mhlanga confirmed the suspect's arrest via an announcement on Twitter, applauding the Hawks for a good job in investigating the case.
In 2021, the DBE also put measures in place to avoid irregularities such as cheating and the leaking of exam papers once again, which included a hotline which can be used to report such incidents.
