By Akani Nkuna
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwaruble says she is satisfied with the start of the National Senior Certificate exams, which kicked off on Monday.
Gwarube and Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane were both upbeat about the exams during an oversight inspection at Soshanguve East Secondary School in Tshwane where over 200 learners wrote their English exam.
However, she did reiterate her pleas for communities to refrain from disrupting the exams, and assured the public that her department was keeping an eye on the adverse weather conditions in KwaZulu-Natal. Heavy rains and flooding are expected.
“Contingency plans have been made… if things escalate, we may have to look at moving certain centres, but we would be loathed to do that. We would only make that decision only really under extreme circumstances,” she said.
“There is no cause for panic. We are in touch with the South African Weather Service and we will be receiving regular updates,” she added.
On protests, Gwarube said: “We are pleading with our communities to please allow our matriculants to [write] their exams with minimal disruptions. We are asking our local leaders to please give schools time and space to allow these learners to do what they can do.”
She further said that the department’s job was to “make sure that things are running smoothly, that papers are delivered on time and that the exam venues are ready”.
Many township schools are dysfunctional, and this adversely impacts on a learner’s educational experiences and outcomes.
Soshanguve East Secondary School principal Mmabatho Riba alluded to the challenges that the school faced, saying that the high unemployment rate had had a huge impact on parents and children.
“[Lack of parental support] is a challenge to the school, [although their not being supportive can be justified] because they are struggling as most of them are not employed. We are able to deal with those problems with the support of the community leaders,” she said.
Meanwhile, Grade 12 learner Mpho Rammala described preparing for the final exams as difficult and challenging mostly due to living in a township.
He said that finding the perfect time to study was a challenge.
“The environment that I was studying in was not conducive, but I tried to manage through that.”
Another learner from the school, Surprise Mathebula,told reporters that her preparations were marked by mental breakdowns because of exam-related stress.
However, she was feeling better now.
“I am feeling very good and ready. I think this exam will be much easier than the previous ones,” she said.
Matric learner, Thabo Ndlovu, said: “I feel confident, because I have always been putting effort to study and cross-nighting (working throughout the night). I am happy about the extra lessons the school prepared us with. They were very helpful.”
Chiloane also expressed confidence in his department’s preparations to ensure a well-run NSC exam period. There were high expectations to produce good results as a province.
“As a province we are ready. We are confident. We have never really experienced disruptions for many years in our province with these exams. We are also as province confident of the improvement of the results,” he said.
INSIDE EDUCATION
