A Limpopo lawyer says it is unlawful for the Education Department to prevent learners who failed matric to repeat the class. Terrace Maluleke successfully obtained an interim urgent order from the High Court in Thohoyandou which compels the department to allow a group of learners to repeat Grade 12.
Maluleke was representing seven learners at Shirilele High School in Malamulele who were refused admission after failing in 2020.
He says the court order covers all learners who want to repeat Grade 12.
“The learners whose circumstances are similar to this ones should be able to enjoy the outcomes of the court ruling; therefore, they can go back to class. In the event they’re denied access, they can also approach us to intervene so that they enjoy the proceeds of this order. We can do an application to all the learners were represented on pro bono, meaning they’re not paying anything; we’re representing them for free.”
Support system for matric learners who failed:
Learners urged to rewrite subjects
In February, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga encouraged learners to pursue re-writing the subjects they did not do well in instead of repeating the whole year.
“You may just need to re-write provided that you have enough time to put extra study into improving the results. Some people think repeating the whole year, of course, that is not always the solution to repeat the whole year and if you can achieve the same thing by re-writing in June, why not. But I am not discouraging people to do that if in fact, all their marks were not good,” the Minister said.
Cosas’ Douglas Ngobeni said the matric second chance programme and supplementary examinations are also other options.
“If you get a bachelor, but are not accepted into university there are also technical universities that don’t offer lesser qualifications. There are still institutions of higher learning. There is no institution of higher learning that is better than the other. So, if you don’t get a bachelor that does not allow you to get into your institution then you can go back to your class and upgrade.”
