East London students miss exams because of taxi strike
Education department tells schools to reschedule
Some East London students missed exams because of the taxi strike last week, in spite of instructions to principals and district education directors by the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) to reschedule exams.
In Rubusana District exams were not postponed, affecting about 40 students who did not make it to school.
Some of the students claim that they were turned back home because they arrived 30 minutes late.
When GroundUp accompanied one of the students to the Rubusana District offices today, the official on duty could not say whether the student would be allowed to write his Life Sciences exam paper or not.
“All I can tell you is that if I hear anything I will inform you, just keep on coming here,” said the official.
“I spent R17 coming here and I didn’t get any proper answers. All I was told was to continue coming back,” said the student, who wanted to remain anonymous.
“I tried to come here on Friday but all roads were blocked,” he said.
In an email to GroundUp, parent Nocawe Samiyeni said she had tried to get her child to Rubusana last Friday but had been blocked by the taxi strike. She said attempts to contact Rubusana District and ECDOE offices in Zwelitsha had failed.
“I appeal to the Department of Education at national level to give our children a chance to write,” she said.
One of the students, Sizeka Dayimani, told GroundUp that she had been turned back from school because she arrived 20 minutes late.
“I walked all the way from Duncan Village to Mdantsane for three and half hours. I was only 20 minutes late but I was not allowed to write. I begged the invigilators but they refused to let me write,” said Dayimani, holding back tears. “I hope the department can give us another chance to write exams.”
Dayimani said officials at the Rubusana office were not giving students a straight answer.
“These guys do not know anything. Some of them were not even aware that people wrote the exams that day,” she said.
ECDoE spokesperson Malibongwe Mali said students must be given a chance to write the exams. Principals had been told to reschedule, he said.
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