Johannesburg - More than 15 000 Kuruman school pupils from Grade R to Grade 11 will have to repeat their grades next year, the basic education department said on Monday.
“All those learners will have to repeat those grades because they missed out on too much work. They missed pretty much half of the year,” spokeswoman Troy Martens said.
“This was made very clear to them when we had community meetings.”
A group calling themselves the “Road Forum” began protesting in June demanding that a 130km stretch of road in the John Taolo Gaetsewe district municipality be tarred. Protesters barred pupils from going to school to get the attention of the authorities.
Nearly 16 000 pupils at 54 schools in different villages were affected. Of these 496 were matriculants. Pupils returned to school on September 22.
Martens said during the protest parents were repeatedly warned that keeping their children from school could lead to them possibly having to repeat their grades.
“The parents ignored our pleas. It's an unfortunate situation but we can't pass all of them to the next grade,” she said.
Martens said matriculants, however, would be given another opportunity.
“We have got the matriculants in an intense remedial program. They will write supplementary exams in March next year.
“This is a very unusual situation so we had to make arrangements for them.”
In September, matriculants from Kuruman were deregistered for this year's matric examination so they could prepare for the supplementary exams. - Sapa