A group of university students and unemployed graduates who assisted in last December's marking of exams at the Graeme College marking centre are saying that their employer the Department of Education has ripped them off.
A group of university students and unemployed graduates who assisted in last December's marking of exams at the Graeme College marking centre are saying that their employer the Department of Education has ripped them off.
They allege that the Department paid them insufficient salaries that were not a reflection of the amount they signed for in their contracts.
The exam assistants, mostly from Grahamstown, said the contract and the claim forms clearly promised them R7 200 for 13 days' work.
Many of them were shocked when they received lesser amounts fluctuating between R3 000 and R5 000.
Siyasanga Hashe, a PGDip Accountancy student from Rhodes, has two years of experience in an examination assisting job and is for the first time discontent.
"I signed my claim form, which showed that R7 200 was due to me after I had worked my full 13 days, but I received a bank notification via sms on the 23rd of December showing R5 400."
Hashe said she doubts that the money was taxed by SARS, because when she counted against the previous year's figure, it shows that it jumped from 13% in 2012 to a whopping 25% in 2013.
Ondela Mbanyaru, a final year student of civil engineering from Cape Peninsula University of Technology, said he won't do it again and thinks that it is not worth the trouble.
Originally from King Williams Town, he was renting a flat here in Grahamstown during the period of marking exams and said the salary helped him break even.
Senior Education Specialist at the examination division of the Education Department in Grahamstown, Mbuyiseli Jonas, assumed that it went towards tax.
"I'm not really sure about percentages at the moment, but what I can tell you is that they can get whatever has been deducted back once the IRP 5s are available at the Department," he said.
Siyanda Hashe, who worked as an exam assistant in 2011 and 2012, showed Grocott's Mail her IRP 5s reflecting a taxed amount of R122.00 for both her salaries.
She said in her experience, the amount taxed for exam assistants never exceeded the R200 mark and the 25% usually applied to the senior markers (professional teachers).
Provincial spokesperson for the Department of Education, Malibongwe Mtima, said the Department will run an investigation into the matter.
"This might jeopardise our relationship with students and we can't afford that, because they are key to ensuring that the exams go smoothly and without any discrepancies."
Mtima urged the Exam Assistants to be patient and await the outcome of the investigation.
