Pupil torch school building ‘over matric exams’
Chaos erupted at an Eastern Cape school when leaners set alight an administration building on
Tuesday evening due.
The provincial education department says the protests were related to the ongoing matric exams.
Pupils also assaulted the deputy principle of Ndaliso Senior Secondary School in Flagstaff.
"The principle had to be whisked away because they were fuming," says the department’s spokesperson, Mali Mtima.
He says the protests are due to matrics who progressed from Grade 11 demanding to write all their exams this year.
The progression system was introduced to allow struggling learners to complete their senior certificate exams over two years.
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"As the department, we have been sticking to our policy but the learners want us to change it so they can be able to write. We are saying it can't be like that because the policy is not allowing us.
“We are saying you are not fit to write everything because you have been consistently failing. We giving this opportunity because we want to make sure that you pass," Mtima says.
Several meeting have taken place between learners, school staff, the student governing body and the department to try and resolve the issue.
He says it only a minority of students who “were hell-bent on disrupting the exams”.
"Initially we had agreed on that to push for harmony, but despite that, they have not stopped protesting.”
Mtima says police have been called to monitor the school while the department attempts to find a solution.
Police are investigating a case of arson.