File Picture: Tumi Pakkies/African News Agency(ANA)
A massive taxi strike in Zeerust in the North West province resulted in five schools starting the matric exams late on Tuesday.
Taxis in Zeerust embarked on a massive taxi strike and blockaded the roads in the entire town. This resulted in five out of the 13 schools in the area starting their matric Economics paper an hour late at 10am.
Four schools in the province were also victims of storm damage when their roofs were blown off by the hail storm days before the start of the final matric exams.
The four schools in Ngaka Modiri Molema District were J. M. Lekgetha in Lichtenburg, Ikopanyeng Secondary, Gaesegwe Primary and Upper Setlagole Primary School in Ratlou Local Municipality.
The secondary schools managed to implement a quick intervention to ensure matric exams went ahead as planned.
The provincial department of education said that despite these glitches, the matric examination ran smoothly on the first and second days.
The MEC for Education, Mmaphefo Matsemela, said she was satisfied with the progress registered by the schools.
"So far, I am truly satisfied by the progress registered by the province. All our schools have written successfully on the first and the second day,“ she said.
Matsemela said that the challenges of storm damage experienced in Ngaka Modiri Molema District and the taxi protest could not deter their province from writing the examinations.
“I would like to appeal to our communities to allow learners space to write examination without any distraction. As a province, we have a target to achieve, and we want learners to be given a fair chance to make us proud,” said Matsemela.
She further indicated that they had assigned inspectors to the storm damaged schools to conduct assessments on the extent of the damages.
Matsemela monitored the writing of examinations at Onkgopotse Tiro Technical and Ikageleng Technical Schools near Zeerust this week.
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
Education