DURBAN - THE Education Department in KwaZulu-Natal is concerned about the impact the recent civil unrest might have had in preparing the grade 12 pupils for their final examinations.
Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu recently said the department’s matric intervention programmes were disrupted as everything had come to a standstill.
Winter classes had to be cancelled to make sure the safety of pupils and teachers were prioritised.
“So it means we now have to double our work to cover the time lost. We had hoped to use the winter vacation to cover the time that was lost at the beginning of the year, particularly for the class of 2021.
“We now need to double our effort because basically we lost so much time again during this vacation, but the team at head office with all the stakeholders are working on developing a programme that will now see us working throughout the year until the final day of examination so that we really compensate and be able to cover the gaps that would have arisen as loss of time.”
Mshengu said Covid-19 has made things really difficult for the department.
He said the class of 2021 “is the most disadvantaged, even if you compare it with the class of 2020 because this class of 2021 was a grade 11 that could not finish the curriculum last year because of the disruptions that happened. There was the hard lockdown”.
“They are a limping grade 12 class of 2021, so they need more time to be in class with educators and spend most of the time in a teaching and learning environment.
“With all these disruptions, we will soldier on and make sure that we score higher marks at the end of the year,” he said.
THE MERCURY