Upon completing the preliminary examinations which are currently underway, our Gr.12 pupils will be completing their finals, to pass matric. The prelims exams are supplied by the “Department of Education”, some are national papers, meaning all kids write the same papers, others are not. The Biology papers happen to be National papers, through all 9 provinces kids write the same paper.

The Dept. of Edu supply the memorandum, i.e. the “Correct Answers”.

Here is just a taste of what I started sending the Dept. when I received the memo and worked through it.

Dear Lindi, or whomsoever it concerns

I would like to officially complain regarding the Biology Gr. 12 Prep. Exam HG, paper 1 which was completed today (24 August 2005). The exam was good, on standard mostly, the problem is with regards the Memorandum.

Just to give a few examples, I don’t want to bore you into a stupor:

1. Section A: Q.1.3.3 (Afr. Memo) koolsuurgas is not accepted terminology any more
2. Section A: Q 1.5.2. Graph reading of wrights true and projected. No guide is given to learners, the answer of 12kg if out of thin air. On the graph scale it does not even make sense.
3. Section A: Q1.5.3 Question is stated in singular, yet answer requires according to Memo, two answers.
4. Section A: Q1.5.4 Two diseases as a result of the diet, any number of things, Memo restricted to Diabetes and Heart problems is narrow minded, learners answer kwashiorkor, Scurvy, Anemia etc etc etc. they are higher grade after all.
5. Section A: Q1.5.5 Question asks deficiency, not what deficiency ailment or similar wording, question would imply answer of “protein deficiency”. but Memo asks for kwashiorkor etc.

As you can see these are only the problems in Section A. The most disturbing problem from Section B, is the questioning of BIOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT FEATURES (eng. paper) which in itself is not a problem, but consider that FEATURES ARE NOT FUNCTIONS, and we have a problem with the Memo. In the Afr. paper, the questions are stated as BIOLOGIES BELANGRIKE EIENSKAPPE, and BIOLOGIES BELANGRIKE KENMERKE, in neither instance is one of these the same as the FUNKSIE as answered in the Memo.

Solutions???? I hope you have some. The only people that are losing in these cases, are the children.

Thank you for adding extra time to the marking, due to the fact that we as teahcers now have to set a new Memorandum.

Regards Laurette Seddon Hoërskool Edenvale Biology Teacher

This was actually submitted vie internet, and I was amazed that the girly actually passed it on to the correct people.