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WENDY MOTHATA|
THE Department of Basic Education says that service delivery protests, rolling blackouts and weather conditions are some of the challenges that are faced by the matric class 2022.
DBE director-general, Mathanzima Mweli briefed the media on the progress of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams on Sunday.
According to the department, 119 centers were affected by Eskom’s rolling blackouts.
Mweli said that service delivery protests were also becoming a big threat to Grade 12 learners writing exams.
He said that 53 leaners in Gauteng have missed the exams due to service delivery protest.
“Fifty-three learners in Gauteng could not write their exams simply because of service delivery protests. The learners were involved in an area where there were even shooting incidents,” said Mweli.
In Mngungundlovu in KwaZulu-Natal, police had to be called to escort education officials to the examination centres due to a service delivery protest. While in Etwatwa on the East Rand, some learners could not sit for their exams last Monday.
There were also reported disruptions in parts of the Northern Cape, where writing eventually took place.
Mweli appealed that learners should not be prevented to write their exams.
“We want to make an appeal that learners shouldn’t be prevented from writing exams for any reason whatsoever,” he said.
“We want to make an appeal that learners shouldn’t be prevented from writing exams for any reason whatsoever.”
Meanwhile, Chief Director for Exams at the Basic Education Department, Rufus Poliah, said a total of 199 centres have been affected by the rolling blackouts since the start of the exams, affecting almost 4000 learners.
“In total, the number of learners that were impacted in some way by load shedding was 3956 but as we mentioned last week, only 14 learners are coming from Computer Applications Technology that has to rewrite the paper. And that was because of load shedding when they switched to a generator resulted in the power surge and that damaged the computers that they were using.”
Poliah also reminded learners about the penalties of cheating in the exam room.
“If you are caught in possession of an examination question paper, are too ghastly to contemplate. It is going to ruin your entire future as a student. So, do not even attempt to venture into that direction.”
“To our parents and members of the public, we are dependent on you to be our eyes and ears wherever you are. If you have any information that may appear suspicious, remember our hotline number: 069 335 2818 and I promise we will respond.”
According to Basic Education Department, schools that have refused to let students sit for their matriculation exams because of things like not paying school fees or being pregnant may face consequences.
“This is unlawful. Our policies are very clear on these matters. The issue of school fees should be dealt with by parents or guardians and no learner should be prevented from writing exams because of not paying school fees,” said Mweli.
“Payment of school fees is an issue between the parent and the school. No learner should be prevented from writing an examination because of non-payment of school fees.”
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