Westcol pupils close to skipping exams

Westcol College pupils at the Randfontein campus almost missed their national exams after the college allegedly failed to submit their application to the Department of Higher Education in time.

This was brought to the herald’s attention by one of the pupils who said that they were sent messages of Friday (18 July) indicating that they could not write their exams anymore. The herald has a copy of the message in question, which reads: “Regretfully your enrolment is forfeited due to a system error. You will write exams in November 2014.”

According to student Katlego Mazibuko, this caused panic among the students.

“The school sent us SMSs late Friday afternoon and by then we couldn’t do anything. We were worried that we would not be able to write our exams irrespective of when we had sent in our applications,” Mazibuko says.

“This is really their own negligence and we cannot be blamed for the fact that they encountered a system error,” says Mazibuko who adds that their registrations should have been submitted ahead of time to allow for any technical glitches to be sorted out should they occur.

The herald since has spoken to Westcol’s marketing manager Salome du Toit who says that this was rectified with the second SMS that was sent out to pupils.

“Yes, students were informed that they would write their exams in November; however this was rectified with a second SMS, which instructed them to fetch their temporary permits from school. These permits will allow them to write their exams that started on Monday (21 July), and so far so good. Exams are a high priority at all our campuses and we treat them as such,” says Du Toit who adds that those who did not receive the SMS for Monday’s exams will be enrolled free of charge and given another date to write.

Despite the assurance that all things are good and well at the campus, pupils at the school have raised concerns that the initial message sent out could have had a negative impact on their preparations for the exams.