The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education says over 100 000 learners are expected to sit for matric exams on November 5, but some learners have opted to skip this year and start afresh next year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a huge strain on the academic year and has made learners anxious about their finals.
Nineteen-year-old matric learner Saeeda Yasin is among those that are affected.
“I was excited about matric experiencing this it was my final year but due to this corona virus pandemic I started having stress about what if I go to school and I get affected what if these other learners have it and I get infected with coronavirus. It sort of affected my marks just dropped down I thought that there was no way moving forward I’d rather just start of fresh the following year.”
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In Gauteng the Department is taking no chances. With COVID-19 having disrupted the schooling system and some learners finding it difficult to keep up, the department has this week taken 10 000 learners to various campsites.
The camps are in addition to Saturday classes which all township learners had access to in the last few months.
Vincent Zulu runs the department’s program called the Secondary School Improvement Programme.
“This programme is there to ensure that these learners also have confidence when they sit for exams. The teachers and the district are making sure in terms of the content that may have missed, because some of these learners may not have been able to go to classes because of the disruptions by COVID-19. So, they are able to therefore cover all those gaps.”
The camps will focus on gateway subjects such as Mathematics and Physical Science.
Matric learners share their feelings about the upcoming exams:
