Officials from the Department of Education in the Free State have over the last two days been holding meetings at the various schools in the mining town to discuss the way forward for the 2019 year. 

Schools were forced to shut down in October due to service delivery protests. Community members at the time called for Mayor Thandi Reachable’s head. 

The Department presented its decision and a plan to that effect to parents of Koffiefontein Combined School today after weeks of conflicting reports and much speculation about the academic year which resulted in a great deal of confusion in the town. 

Parents took to the podium in the school hall to express their dissatisfaction with the department’s decision, many adding that the children and teachers are going to burn out. Parents further asked who is going to pay teachers for overtime or pay for extra meals for learners during the extra classes.

One parent, in particular, quoted rules from the Basic Education guidelines that indicate that in the event that a child is unable to write exams due to unforeseen circumstances, like illness or death of a loved one, they can be exempt from the exam process and proceed to the next grade based on their continued assessment average, referred to in the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (Caps). 

A government official said: “Caps does not cater for all learners at once. It caters for one instance”.  This did not go down well with parents, with some exclaiming that they have lost faith in the education department and in MEC Tate Makgoe.

The OFM News team visited Reikaeletse High School earlier today where the Headmistress explained that the Department of Education addressed them this past Friday with a way forward. She stated that according to the Department of Education, the learners in her school will revise the 2018 academic work and start with exams on the 25th of January 2019. Thereafter they will be issued with reports on the 15th of February and start with the 2019 curriculum on the 18th.

The parents at the Koffiefontein Combined School maintain that it is unfair to put learners under pressure to revise the whole year’s work and write exams before the 2019 academic work could commence. Many have at this stage threatened to embark on protests should the department not heed to their call.

OFM News/Katleho Morapela, Sazly Hartzenberg and Olebogeng Motse