The Minister of Basic Education Mrs. Angie Motshekga has welcomed the resumption of schooling in Vuwani today. This follows President Jacob Zuma’s meeting with His Majesty and affected community stakeholders where an agreement was reached on the demarcation concerns from the residents.

Officials from the provincial Department of Education have been monitoring the situation closely in the area this morning to ensure that schooling resumes.

Vuwani shutdown had affected 76 schools involving 27 697 learners with 1 702 of them in grade 12.

Initial reports indicate that all the affected schools were re-opened in the area this morning. An assessment of the days that have been lost to the protest has been conducted and this will inform us of what needs to be done to help our learners to catch up.

On that note, the Department would like to urge all learners and teachers to focus on learning. Members of the community are also urged to support departmental interventions to ensure that learners are back in class.

“We value the education of our children and we hope that this kind of disruption will not happen again.  “Our main aim right now is to ensure that our learners catch up with their work through interventions that will be rolled out at all schools,” Minister Motshekga said.

The department will continue to monitor the situation in Vuwani in order to put in place appropriate support measures.

Issued by GCIS on behalf of the Department of Basic Education