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- Matrics are likely to face challenges during the National Senior Certificate exams, unions cautioned.
- Exams kicked off this week, with more than 920 000 full- and part-time pupils expected to write.
- Unions were particularly concerned about the impact of Covid-19 and load shedding.
Matric exams for the class of 2022 have kicked off, but education unions say pupils are likely to face some challenges this year.
More than 920 000 full- and part-time learners will sit for 193 question papers, with the first written papers having taken place yesterday (Monday).
This year will see an increase of more than 22 000 candidates, which the Department of Basic Education say has allayed fears that significant numbers of pupils dropped out due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) say the 2022 class is the largest cohort to sit for these examinations.
"It is this class that has suffered the most challenges. In 2020, while this class was in Grade 10, it experienced lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lost almost half of the year as schools closed in March and opened in July on a rotational basis, which continued well into 2021.
"This class only experienced full-time classroom attendance in 2022, while doing Grade 12," said Sadtu's Mugwena Maluleke.
The CEO of the Federation of School Governing Bodies (Fedsas), Jaco Deacon, said pupils had spent two of their three senior phase years navigating Covid-19 restrictions.
"This has allowed them to have a final year in which they can participate in extracurricular activities, such as sports and matric farewells. This brings balance and helps pupils manage their stress and will count in their favour."
Deacon said the programmes run by the department to assist in catching up learning time, lost due to the pandemic, had been effective - and making it available after normal schooling resumed had provided many pupils with support they did not have in previous years.
"Even learners in remote areas have access to lesson materials and support now. We initially thought we would see a massive fall-out of learners, but we haven't - and it could be that the department's intervention programmes have encouraged them to go for exams because they have more access to more resources than ever," he said.
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Maluleke, however, said the catch-up programmes were not sustainable, and that after-hours classes placed "enormous strain" on both learners and teachers.
"We, therefore, call on the department to put more resources to capacitate learning and teaching in lower grades, so that schools will not have to subject themselves to such catch-up programmes," said Maluleke.
The acting president of the National Teaching Union, Sibusiso Malinga, said this year's matrics had faced the full impact of the pandemic, which had a negative effect on teaching and learning.
He added that teachers had to sacrifice their holidays and afternoons to catch up on teaching time in preparing pupils for the exams.
However, he said that some education challenges were present before the pandemic, and were yet to be addressed.
"We raised issues with the department before the pandemic, and these are yet to be addressed. For instance, our teachers are teaching full classes, and the pupil-to-teacher ratio has not been adequately addressed. This means teachers can no longer offer pupils individual attention," said Malinga.
He added that the union had been lobbying the department to install generators at schools to reduce the impact of load shedding.
"Not all schools could afford alternative energy sources to ensure effective learning and teaching in the classroom. Learners could not properly prepare for schooling in their homes due to load shedding," said Maluleke.
"We continue to be concerned about blackouts that will negatively impact learners throughout the process of writing. Any disturbance during revision causes anxiety. Blackouts cause delays in travelling and students may find themselves arriving at examination centres already emotionally disturbed.
"The candidates and their teachers will carry levels of anxiety through this examination period because they have not rested as they needed to cover three years of work."
Deacon said most schools had plans in place to deal with load shedding.
"The issue is more pronounced when it comes to learners preparing for exams, especially if the load shedding schedule changes unexpectedly," he said.
Deacon added that a number of schools had implemented programmes to help learners affected by load shedding, such as providing charging stations at schools and providing study halls during the evenings.
