Today, the DA has written to the MEC for Education, Ishmael Kgetjepe, to request that his counterpart in the Department of Transport, MEC Makoma Makhurupetje, provides free bus tokens to all learners who will be writing their supplementary matric examinations later this month.

Qualifying learners who live more than 5 kilometres away from the centres should be provided with transport, free of charge, to write their exams, as per the Education Policy.

42 centres across the province have been identified as examination centres for the possible 44328 learners who did not write the matric exams. Learners are, however, responsible to pay for their own transport to and from these centres.

This presents a challenge to our learners as most come from impoverished households where the families have no source of income.

This DA is concerned that Limpopo's education department did not have the foresight to organise scholar transport for those learners who cannot afford to pay transport fees on a daily basis to write these crucial supplementary exams.

The DA has requested MEC Kgetjepe to urgently engage with the Department of Transport to intervene in this regard by authorising Great North Transport, an entity owned by the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (LEDA), to transport the qualifying learners to ensure they are able to write their supplementary exams.

 

Issued by DA