Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga hopes this year’s matric exams will be incident free. Grade 12 exams have in recent years been hit by incidents of paper leaks and group copying.
On Tuesday, Motshekga visited Reiger Park Secondary School, east of Johannesburg, to wish learners well for their English Paper One. The exams got underway last week and will run until the 28 November.
“No one wants to be called a failure of 2018 neh? So you’re all on your way out and give the Grade 11’s their turn neh? Look at her how she’s looking at me; I’m here my kids to really wish you well. Remain calm, remain focussed, rest and just know you’re right at the most important part of your life, so to our entire Grade 12’s, we want to say we wish them well as a nation. So before the chief invigilator throws me off, let me give you time to really start with your paper.”
Motshekga addressed scores of matric learners in the exam hall before they started writing at Reiger Park Secondary School. She says the visit was for her to witness the first big day of this year’s National Senior Certificate exams.
“From the on-going reports that I’ve been getting from exam centres, exam section in the department, from provinces, and witnessing the start of today (Tuesday). I’m optimistic that there won’t be any drama because dramas are so stressful in this sector, it is a big system and one leak just impacts on the integrity of the exam. So I’m really hoping that all the plans that we’ve put into place work as we planned.”
The minister says she chose to go to Reiger Park because it is a big school, and such schools are prone to a variety of challenges compared to smaller schools.
Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga, DBE Spokesperson @ElijahMhlanga at Reiger Park Sec. School for #NSCExams2018 monitoring pic.twitter.com/En0PuRRX0G
— Dep. Basic Education (@DBE_SA) October 23, 2018
Earlier this year, the school was rocked by a sexual abuse scandal. The school principal was accused of sexually abusing learners after photos of the principal in a compromised position with female learners in his office went viral on social media.
Motshekga says she is satisfied that the provincial education department has sufficiently dealt with the matter. “It’s unfortunate they had that incident with the principal. But it is a very organised community and it always has very good leadership. Reiger Park is one of our best schools, so I didn’t expect too much of drama or too much of difficulties.”
The minister also expressed concern about other incidents reported in various schools around the country this year. These include learners physically attacking teachers, as well as educators being accused of sexually abusing children. Motshekga believes girl children remain vulnerable to all sorts of abuse.
“For me the Cheryl Zondi thing shows how as a community, not only us as a sector, things can fall through the cracks. The whole community has to protect the girl child from the priest, but also get everybody to understand how teenagers behave. They’re rebellious, they have all sorts of things. They really are confused because of the changes that are taking place, which is not only physical changes. It’s also in their brain and in their emotions, but it really calls upon us to do more, to protect the girl child inside and outside the school.”
With regards to the exams the minister has appealed to parents to give their children full support for the duration of the exams. Click below for more on the story:
