No load reduction during matric exams which need electricity, says department [VIDEO]

The Department of Basic Education has said that it has been reassured by power utility Eskom and municipalities that load reduction will be suspended during the week of matric exams where pupils will write computer-based subjects.

This was confirmed in a briefing on Sunday.

“There was a meeting between the department and Eskom. Now we have the challenge of load reduction, not load shedding. Eskom said there will be no load shedding, as there is no load shedding [in the country at the moment].

“The subjects that require electricity will be written this week and they have promised us that there will be no disturbances whatsoever.

“But we encourage provinces to enter into discussions with municipalities because municipalities are the ones who are now embarking on this load reduction.

“The municipalities and the South African Local Government Association (Salga) promised that exams would run, even though we know there are those people who will want to switch off schools because of exams,” deputy minister Makgabo Reginah Mhaule said.

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Mhaule said the security cluster would monitor the exams and would respond to any incidents or disasters that may arise.

High-risk centres

Nearly 900,000 students will sit for their matric final exam from Monday. 882,000 students will write in government schools and facilities, while 16,400 learners will write IEB exams. This is 4,000 more candidates than last year.

70 part-time monitors have been hired to oversee 987 high-risk centres to “prevent irregularities like group coping or leaking of exams”, said minister Siviwe Gwarube at a briefing on Sunday.

Among these is a centre in Mpumalanga. Others include a centre that will hold exams for the first time and where irregularities have been found before.

Mhaule said the department would take over these centres and remove any teachers they suspected of being involved in cheating.

“The department has brought in capable teachers and officials from elsewhere to handle the exams.”

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‘Please don’t protest’ during matric exams

Gwarube told communities to give matrics “the support they require”.

“These are important exams for our learners and we want to make sure there are no disruptions. No protest action at school, no protest action in our communities. So we can insulate our learners from outside disruptions as much as possible.

“Protesting is a democratically protected right but our centres and schools are national assets. Over 800,000 candidates will have this one opportunity that can change the course of their lives.

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“While we can understand that protests are part of our democratic dispensation, I ask that communities be mindful that protests can disrupt this critical time. We would appreciate support from communities.”

She also made a plea to those in parliament, legislatures, and councils that oversight visits be minimised during this time.

“This is a big moment for our matriculants. We want to make sure they write in peace.”

For their part, Gwarube said learners should minimise distractions.

“Please stay off Instagram, Facebook and TikTok during these critical times,” Gwarube said.

Anomalies ‘corrected’

The department said stringent processes were used to select exam markers.

It admitted that “some anomalies” had been detected with the selection of markers for this year’s exams, but these “have been corrected already”.

Matric exam results will be released on the 14th of January 2025.

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