Education Committee commend plans by Education Department and will monitor them closely
29 April 2020
A joint meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, and the Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture, today heard that schooling is likely to start incrementally as of 6 May 2020.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) told the committees that it plans to start schooling next week with Grade 12 and Grade 7 as they are the exit grades and also have less numbers. Grade 11 and Grade 6 will follow two weeks later on 20 May, followed by Grade 10 and Grade 5 on 3 June, Grade 9 and Grade 4 will follow on 17 June, Grade 8 and Grade 3 on 1 July, Grade 2 and Grade 1 on 8 July, and Grade R on 15 July. This will allow the country to get ready and most likely also lead the country to move to a lower level regarding the Covid-19 lockdown. This was, however, subject to guidance by the committees.
The committees expressed confidence in the plans presented to it. The Portfolio Committee Chairperson, MsBongiweMbinqo-Gigaba, appreciated the work done by the DBE behind the scenes. “Please communicate so our people know what is happening. If there are changes, please inform the public. We are all stressed. But we need to work together. Even if our kids go back to school there will be challenges and our responsibility as MPs is to support and assist and report for those challenges to be rectified.”
The committees further heard that the June rewrite examinations for Grade 12 have been cancelled and will now occur together with the annual National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations at the end of the year. This has led to a drastic increase in the number of candidates that will sit for these exams, which in turn will lead to the release of the 2020 NSC results being postponed possibly to the third week in January 2021.