Cape Town - A West Coast school has prevented a pregnant matric candidate from writing her first National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam.
The Western Cape incident emerged on Sunday when DBE director-general Mathanzima Mweli, joined by national assessments chief director Rufus Poliah, briefed the media about the progress of this year’s NSC exams.
Mweli said the exams were proceeding well, but serious concerns emerged about threats to the running of the national exams that included service delivery protest action and load shedding.
“A pregnant candidate was not allowed to write the English FAL P1 examination at one of the centres in the Western Cape. Another candidate was denied access to the exam room due to non-payment of school fees at an independent centre in the Free State, a matter that is under investigation,” he said.
Mweli said it was national policy that barring a pupil from school on the grounds of being pregnant was discriminatory.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) policy came into effect in January this year.
Education MEC David Maynier confirmed the incident, saying the pregnant pupil was barred by the school principal on Monday last week.
“The department acted immediately and the matter has been resolved, with the learner writing her remaining exams at the school.
“The learner will not be disadvantaged in terms of results.
“We remind all principals that learners cannot be denied access to their exams due to pregnancy, or issues like non-payment of school fees.
“Any learner who experiences this should contact the district office immediately,” said Maynier.
Other Western Cape incidents included a candidate found in possession of a cellphone at a centre and another found in possession of crib notes.
The DBE is also investigating an incident where a candidate in the province arrived later than the allowed one hour at a centre.
Bad weather also affected exams in North West province and the Northern Cape. The Northern Cape, Gauteng and North West provinces saw massive protest disruptions.
This year’s is the largest NSC group to date, with 921 879 candidates, comprising 753 964 full time and 167 915 part-time candidates.
National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) executive director Basil Manuel said he was “extremely” concerned about the number of candidates prevented from writing because of protests.
“We are appealing to the folks who are protesting not to spoil the life chances of the children. Secondly, also, we get reports about irregularities.
Whilst there have been two or more incidents of copying, we urged candidates not to ruin their life by doing this.”
Education activist Hendrick Makaneta said drastic measures should be taken against school principals who refused to let pregnant candidates or those with outstanding school fees access an exam.
“Learners have a right to create a future for themselves. On the same note, society should align itself with the call by director-general Mweli to create a safe space for exams to run smoothly,” said Makaneta.
Cape Times