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The Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga, is gravely concerned about the ongoing school disruptions taking place in several parts of the country.

In Zebediela, Limpopo Province, learning and teaching have been disrupted by protesting community members allegedly aggrieved by lack of basic services, mainly a tarred road, connecting the village to the main road.

In KwaZulu-Natal protesting members of the community have also prevented candidates from writing the National Senior Certificate and Senior Certificate examinations in various part of the parts of the provinces including Ugu and Mgungundlovu districts.

In the Ratlou Municipality areas of the North West Province learning and teaching was also disrupted earlier due to service delivery related protests.

“These learners are missing out on critical examinations which are very key towards their final National Senior Certificate (NSC) coming up in a few months. It saddens me that their future is compromised by service delivery issues that have nothing or very little to do with them. We appeal to communities to assist us by not allowing education and our children’s future to be jeopardized by protests.”

The Minister is in the process of making contact with MECs of education in the affected provinces to find an immediate solution and implement a recovery plan for the learners to catch up on lost time, and write their mid-year examinations.

“We are extremely concerned because those candidates who are writing the matric exams now are those who previously didn’t perform well and now wish to upgrade their marks. Those who were out of school without a matric certificate are having their lives disrupted yet again through no fault of their even as they try to pass matric,” Minister Motshekga said.

The Minister will work with provinces to ensure that education services are restored in the areas affected by the protests.

Issued by Department of Basic Education