Grade 12 learners at Madadzhe Secondary School in Ha-Tshikonelo outside Thohoyandou in Limpopo have not been taught Maths, Life Science, Maths Literacy, and Economics, due to a shortage of teachers.
The learners have not been taught these four subjects since schools opened in January 2022.
The Education Department in the province had earlier announced that the school will be merged with a neighbouring one but that has not yet happened.
Some concerned Grade 12 learners say this will affect their matric results at the end of the year.
“There are four subjects that are not taught in this school. We have Grade 12 A and Grade 12 B, in Grade 12 A – there is Life Science and mathematics, in Grade 12 B there is mathematics literacy and mathematics – those subjects are not taught. The other subjects that we are not being taught are life science and pure mathematics, economics and mathematics literacy,” say learners at the school.
Parents say since the opening of schools there have not been teachers for these subjects at Madadzhe Secondary School and have called for the department to merge the school with Alfred Nngwedzeni.
They say they want the school to be merged with the neighbouring Alfred Nngwedzeni secondary school.
“We are ready for the merging of the school because we want our children to receive lessons. They are going to write exams soon, we don’t even know how they’re gonna pass,” says one parent.
Meanwhile, the Limpopo Department of Education’s Deputy Director-General Martin Mashaba says the process to merge the school will be fast-tracked.
Mashaba says, “The school is having the number of educators that are corresponding to the number of learners. If the school does not have the sufficient number of learners, the educators will also be less because of that low number of learners that school does qualify for merger.”
“However the challenge we experienced previously was that we engage with the parents and community. There was a bit of resistance to the merger and the MEC will again restart the process to engage the community,” added Mashaba.
The Department of Education says the delay in the merger was due to resistance by some parents.
