By Amy Musgrave
With the matric exams starting on Monday, the Basic Education Department says some of its main concerns are potential protests and power cuts.
The National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations will run for just over a month until 27 November.
For now, the department has been assured by Eskom that there will be no load reductions for the first week of the exams while learners write computer-based subjects.
Briefing the media on the readiness of the department to administer the exams, Deputy Minister Reginah Mhaule said that there had been a meeting between the department and Eskom.
“Now we have the challenge… of load reduction, not load-shedding. Eskom said there will be no load-shedding, as there is no load-shedding.
“The subjects that require electricity… will be written this week and they have promised us that there will be no disturbances whatsoever,” she said in Pretoria on Sunday.
For the rest of the exam period, the deputy minister said the department was encouraging provinces to enter into discussions with municipalities because they “are the ones who are now embarking on this load reduction as a way of curbing their debt to Eskom”.
She said municipalities and the SA Local Government Association had promised that the “exams would run”.
Mhaule said the security cluster would monitor the exams and respond to any incidents or disasters that may arise.
While no protests have been threatened with regards to the exams, demonstrations in South Africa occur regularly, especially over the lack of service delivery.
Also, Gauteng has seen a number of protests in its townships over the last couple of weeks against foreign nationals who own spaza shops. They have been blamed for food poisoning incidents that have left children ill, and monopolising the township economy.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube appealed to communities to give Grade 12 learners the support they needed and to ensure that there were no disruptions during the exam period.
“Protesting is a democratically protected right. All my plea is that our exam centres and our schools are national assets. There are over 800,000 candidates who are going to have this one opportunity to write an exam that that can change the course of their lives.
“…. I just ask communities to be mindful of the fact that protest action can disrupt this critical period and that we would appreciate from communities to understand… [that we need] to give learners the best shot,” the minister said.
South Africa’s largest teacher union, Sadtu, has also spoken against any demonstrations during this period.
“We strongly condemn any community protests or disruptions timed to coincide with the exams as such actions deprive learners of the opportunity to complete exams that can change their lives for the better,” Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said in a statement.
Earlier this month the Umalusi Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training warned that factors that could disrupt the smooth running of the exams included load-shedding, community protests and cheating.
INSIDE EDUCATION
